Mobile devices ensure we are never disconnected from work, even on holiday

You arrive at the Taj Mahal or the pyramids only to take selfies of yourself for Facebook, facing the camera but away from the wonders of the world, Gerard Howlin.

The question is not where to holiday, it is how. We are so connected, we are never away or off-line anywhere. Time, once a friend, has become an enemy. Now there is no Sabbath in the week and no week in the year when there is a real holiday. The tempo is constantly high and old rhythms of seasons, punctuated by holy days is gone. In a world where no corner, however, remote is beyond the reach of emails or apps, travel is formulaic, not adventure. The modern holiday is becoming exhausting because we are increasingly incapable of taking our ease. Wifi oozes fretfulness everywhere.

Obsessing about putting everything up into the ether means there is no downtime. Travelling on the information super highway means no byway is off the beaten track. The slavery of the modern workplace follows you on tour. Sending snap shots and messages into the void of social media does not capture the moment, it interrupts it. You arrive at the Taj Mahal or the pyramids only to take selfies of yourself for Facebook, facing the camera but away from the wonders of the world.