Using your smartphone during vacation time is doing you no good and here’s why

As time goes by, some people are getting more and more attached to their mobile phones. Oh, who am I kidding, we all are doing it! We have become trapped in a situation, where instead of owning a mobile phone – it owns us.

Even YOU might be reading this now on your mobile phone. Well, that’s the harsh reality, we are using the smartphones every day and for everything. However, let’s not make technology an enemy but rather remember the great impact it has on our lives.

Okay, you need your smartphone more than others can imagine. But do yourself a favor – leave it at home or reduce the time of using the phone during your vacation time. Recent research has shown that 91% of international travelers rely on their smartphones during the holiday. But what do they use it for? Why is taking a smartphone on your trip one of the essentials of traveling? A representative number of answers lead to the following numbers:

• 73% of the travelers keep their eyes focused on the maps and directions of the navigation apps instead of following the signs and asking people on the streets for directions, like in previous times.
• 62% of the travelers are in a constant search for a restaurant nearby, the best beach in town or where to go clubbing in the nights. Such information can be found everywhere; however, we tend to ask Google or other applications about it, searching for the ones that are trending.
• 52% of the travelers are in a constant search for something interesting happening nearby or some to-do activities.
• 50% of the travelers use their smartphones to take a picture, very often that picture being a selfie, and posting it on social media. Travelers sometimes have a strong desire to post their photo or check in real-time.
• 27% of the travelers use their smartphones to find and contact hotels or other accommodation facilities during their trip. The percentage is small because many people have already searched for and arranged their accommodation before arriving at a specified destination. However, they use their smartphones if they want to change the hotel or maybe stay few more days in the current one.

From the several points above you can see that even though travelers are obsessed with using their smartphones for different purposes, they can be quite useful sometimes. The point of not using or reducing the time of using a smartphone during vacation time is to enjoy the relaxing or adventure time instead of always being defocused by the screen of your phone. If you’re planning on paying more attention to your phone than to yourself, then what`s the point of the vacation?

Let`s think about the reasons for using a smartphone during holidays from the point of their pros and cons.

Using your smartphone as a navigation tool.

Pros: It is an efficient way of finding the right path to your desired destination, and it will save up some of your time, not causing to get you lost and confused.
Cons: It will help you not to get lost in the city, but as a passionate traveler aren’t you sometimes looking for that to happen? Don’t you find it interesting to get lost in the magic of the city? Don’t you think that you’re missing on an opportunity of something spontaneous and enjoyable to happen to you? You should be adventurous, walking through the streets, asking for directions, feeling like a stranger that`s lurking in the beauty of the unknown. This way you might come across places and people that you have never planned on visiting and meeting, but suddenly they turned your world around.

Searching for trendy places to eat, drink and go out.

Pros: Using appropriate applications or your friends’ online advice can help you find great places, especially the ones that are cool and trending lately and the ones that seem your type.
Cons: Looking to find these kinds of places is at the first time consuming and secondly, it might not be as good as the little, charming restaurant you’ve spotted down the street or the club that you passed by with a music that you actually like, but you didn’t get to visit because you were too busy finding the “cool” places. Don’t stress out to visit and check in at some places just to impress the people around you. Try to experience the spirit of the city in your way, tasting local food and getting to know the traditions of that particular place.

Searching for nearby events and activities.

Pros: It`s great to use your smartphone for this matter, as you will find out all the events happening around you and choose the ones applicable to your taste.
Cons: Why bother to search for Wi-Fi and to read every event`s description? Just put down the phone and observe around you: if something is worth visiting, it will be advertised all over the town, and many people will talk about it. Just pay more attention to the things happening around you than scrolling down your screen.

Taking photos and posting selfies on social media.

Pros:  Nowadays, many companies are producing smartphones with high-quality cameras, hoping to replace the ordinary cameras and give more value to the smartphone users. And they’re doing a good job, increasing the megapixels of the integrated cameras. And the best part is, whenever you feel like capturing a certain moment and sending or posting the photos, you can do it instantly.
Cons: Travelers are consistently taking pictures that they sometimes forget to enjoy the moment. What if you have so many perfect pictures of a place when you don’t have the proper memory of it? And is it that important to instantly post the photo on Facebook? One of the worst things about gazing at your phone screen all the time is that you’re missing the best thing about a vacation: the moments, the views and the people. Having a holiday is not merely going to a certain destination, but it’s a time-out of everyday routines, problems and the people around you. What’s the point of the vacation if your body has traveled to a specified destination, but your mind hasn’t even moved.

Additionally, it is really rude to the people traveling with you to be feeling left off just because you can’t get your eyes off the screen. They might not say anything about it, but they don’t fancy talking to you while you seem occupied with something unimportant.

For the business people: take your vacation time seriously and stop being obsessed with reading all those work e-mails. Don’t pick up every call unless it’s something urgent. Those people you work with know that you’re having your time away for a while and they will understand if you’re not stressing out about work at that point. Nobody likes to be bothered with work in that period of the year when you deserved to relax and loosen up a bit.

To sum up, smartphones are and will probably play a big and significant part of our lives, but don’t become a slave to technology, forgetting to live it up to your dreams and goals. Use them whenever needed, but try not to make them a substitute for everything. Take your look away from the screen and see that life is happening around you!