Mental Health Week: consider phone free vacations
At the musée du Louvre in Paris last winter, I noticed how the face of almost every visitor was blocked by their phones. Standing in front of the Mona Lisa, rather than observing the small portrait with their eyes, locking it away as a memory, there were dozens of people experiencing it through their screens.
It’s not a judgement to say that, collectively, our phones dominate how we experience life. We’ve all grown alarmingly attached to the services that our cellular devices provide. On average, according to a report by Data Reportal, smartphone users spend almost four hours a day glued to their little phone screens.
This dependence on mobile phones impacts our vacations and how we engage in different environments. Gone are the days of printing off directions on MapQuest or using a foldable map to reroute ourselves if lost on a trip. Today, while travelling, our phones assume the roles of navigator, entertainment provider and personal photographer. Added to that, it’s hard to “unplug” from work or personal responsibilities because our devices make us reachable at all times.
This digital overwhelm has led to the rise of travel companies and vacationers, and generally anyone who may need a “digital detox,” to seek out phone-free vacation experiences.
MENTAL HEALTH IN VIEW
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In June 2023, Ulko-Tammio, an island in Finland, became the first spot to actively encourage visitors to put their phones away and experience the vastness of the island. Johanna Tyynelä, tourism director, says the goal of the island—and the campaign to get folks there—was to “focus their senses on nature rather than on their phones. Many people find it difficult to put their phone down even on holiday. Sharing your holiday activities on social media might feel more important than simply enjoying the moment.”
There are no rules on the island prohibiting users from bringing their phones out. Going phone-free is encouraged, softening what could be a rigid demand into something vacationers enjoy doing voluntarily. Tyynelä says this encouragement was a success and led to visitors relishing in the island’s offerings without a phone to always capture a moment or route them to the next destination.
“We believe that we will receive more visitors to the island of Ulko-Tammio, and it will remain a sacred place where visitors always find a peaceful place to relax.”
There are some spaces that do have the ability to create a firmer phone-free setting. At the Over Yondr music festival in Upstate New York, attendees are given small pouches to put their phones in for the duration to focus on the event itself. Yondr is a company that created these phone pouches that lock when closed and can only be opened once out of a phone-free zone by tapping on a digital base.
Aside from dedicated, digitally-free islands and music festivals, there are travel companies and packages curated around a phone-free experience, like FTLO Travel. FTLO Travel is for young professionals to meet and vacation together—but there is a specific phone-free travel option. It’s less intimidating to be phone-free in these situations because there’s some built-in socializing with planned experiences.
Generally, it’s difficult to enforce a totally digital-less travel experience because vacationers often need to use their phones for other things than photos and social media. Today we download apps to check-in for travel and use QR codes to access menus—some contactless holdovers from the pandemic.
Joel Greaves, co-owner and founder of Somewhere Inn, a boutique spot in Calabogie, Ont., says his inn’s ethos is “to inspire our guests to escape the city, and spend time in nature—we believe nature has the power to restore.” Yet Greaves notes a vital conundrum because the property has a contactless check-in, which helps their efforts in sustainability—but also requires guests have a mobile device.
For Greaves, it’s all about balance and, much like Ulko-Tammio, encouragement.
To combat the lure of screens, Somewhere Inn doesn't have televisions in their rooms. After check-in, Greaves says, guests are invited to participate in a welcome drink at the inn’s wine bar, and encouraged to talk with the staff. Outside, there’s a central fire pit where guests can meet each other or simply watch the waves on the lake. These are some of the examples of where Somewhere Inn has set up an infrastructure for visitors to put their phones down.
Ultimately, the phone-free trend is popular as an act of resistance against how much technology interferes with our day-to-day experiences. Phone-free vacations may not solve all the problems we have with general control and maintenance over technology but it may, as Greaves says, help us disconnect to reconnect. As a hotelier and travel enthusiast himself, he wonders if it’s less about being phone-free and more about simply slowing down.
“It's slow travel. It's figuring out how to facilitate a way for people to live like a local and not have to rely on their phone to answer all these questions for them,” he says.