The Summer Switch-Off

With the summer holiday season rapidly concluding and many of us returning to the office after a well-deserved break, it’s always interesting to see who took the opportunity of annual leave to mentally, and physically, switch off.

In a world where we are constantly available to communicate, whether it be by phone, email, text, Facebook, Twitter or Instagram, one would assume that the ‘early adopters’ would always be looking for the very latest way to communicate and socialise, right?

Not necessarily so. Protein, known for connecting brands with a global audience using unique insight, has uncovered trends that actually buck this otherwise predictable assumption.

Protein’s annual survey highlights that surprisingly a third of the early adopters group is concerned about the amount of time they spend online. Now, surely this seems somewhat conflicting given 61% of these tweet daily and 47% share their holiday photos on Facebook, whilst actually still at their destination?

However, it would appear that ‘digital downtime’ is in fact somewhat lusted after, with technology escapism being offered to consumers itching to be tech free, even for just a short time. Naturally the leisure industry is already tapping into this need, with the likes of Camp Grounded in California offering a ‘tech free retreat’ that enforces a digital amnesty and reunites us with nature.

So, whilst by no means are we looking at an uprising against the technology takeover, perhaps this shows that every now and then, we all do need to disconnect and have a back to basics breather?