On vacation? Odds are, you’re checking email over and over and over and over …

by Christopher Elliott on July 17, 2009

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If you’re on vacation, chances are you’re checking email. Repeatedly. Obsessively. So says a new survey by Sprint.

The younger you are, the worse your compulsion. Nearly 8 in 10 young adults are likely to check their email while they’re away, compared with just under two-thirds of the 55+ crowd.

We are so hooked. No wonder they’re installing Wi-Fi on planes. We wouldn’t have it any other way.

It gets worse.

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There are twice as many “compulsive” email checkers in the 18 to 34 category as in those close to retirement age.

All of which makes me wonder if we’re raising a generation of digital slaves. Don’t laugh. Remember, these are people who are interrupting their vacations to check messages.

Pathetic.

Of course, I’m one of them, too …

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Tagged as: compulsive, email, travel, vacation

  • kevin

    Exactly what is “pathetic” about staying in touch via emails, while on vacation? Would it be considered more pathetic, or less pathetic, than to call home, or write a postcard? I’m a fan of the technology myself. When I’m in the mood, I prefer to send a contemporaneous note, with or without a picture or two, from where ever I am at the time, over trying to find a postcard, a stamp, and a place to mail it, and then wonder if I will beat it home.

  • jlawrence01

    >>All of which makes me wonder if we’re raising a generation of digital slaves. Don’t laugh. Remember, these are people who are interrupting their vacations to check messages.<<

    Is it REALLY vacation if you are obliged to check your e-mails several times a day? Not in my book.

    I cannot believe the number of e-mails that I get from colleagues on vacation.

  • Hapgood

    I take solo vacations. I don’t check my work e-mail, but checking my personal e-mail each night is very helpful in avoiding the inevitable loneliness that is one of the few drawbacks to solo travel (which is otherwise by far the best way to take a vacation).

    To call that “digital slavery” or “interrupting a vacation” is a sweeping generalization that isn’t always correct or appropriate. However, I receive enough e-mail from work colleagues who are (supposedly) on vacation to know that there are indeed many “digital slaves.”

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