home All News open_in_new Full Article

I imposed a holiday WhatsApp ban – but would my friends and family respect it? | Poorna Bell

After one too many moany voicenotes and streams of incessant notifications, I knew something had to changeThough my internal age is set to about 28, the time when I feel profoundly 43 is when I get nostalgic for things rendered obsolete by technology. One of those things was being able to go on holiday without being continually contacted, because the price of sending a text message was the same as a glass of wine. WhatsApp has obliterated that.Over the past year, I’ve noticed how much harder it has been to switch off as a result of the incessant flow of information. I have walked in the Polish countryside foraging for mushrooms under a crisp blue sky, while listening to a friend’s voice note about their work worries in minute detail. After I spent a glorious day out with my 10-year-old niece in Barcelona, eating dumplings and buying stickers, a friend decided to share a non-urgent but emotionally difficult update about a mutual friend’s bad health. While I was in the Maldives, after...



This article explores the impact of constant connectivity via WhatsApp on our ability to truly disconnect during holidays. The author, Poorna Bell, argues that while WhatsApp is a convenient tool for communication, its pervasiveness blurs the lines between important and trivial messages, making it hard to switch off even when we want to relax and enjoy our time away. She suggests that the problem lies not with the app itself, but with our collective acceptance of being available 24/7, leading to a loss of boundaries around communication.

today 19 hours ago attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics
attach_file Events
attach_file Politics
attach_file Events
attach_file Politics
attach_file Politics


ID: 10801114
Add Watch Country

arrow_drop_down