Baratunde Thurston's Internet "Detox"

Baratunde Thurston

Creating an online recollection of one's detox "vacation" from the digital world takes a combination of imagination, chutzpah, and time. The writer Baratunde Thurston produced such a work, which appeared in fastcompany.com and is featured in recent editions of The Washington Post.

It would be easy to pick apart the inconsistencies in Thurston's approach, such as having a "chief of staff" handle his timely professional contingencies during his sabbatical. How many mere mortals have the equivalent of an industry valet? In fairness, he's aware of them and does consider them in his entertaining piece. What's far more interesting is his discovery of the difficulty fully disconnecting from the digital networks. Thurston discovered that the principal social media firms make adieu from their data empires nearly impossible to execute. This awareness seems much more ironic now, in the wake of our sense of the depths of data mining undertaken by the military-technology complex (to restate Dwight Eisenhower's famous characterization).

Thurston's story embraces plenty of wit, a warm sense of humanity, and self-awareness that's mostly refreshing and occasionally promotional. You should read it before you decide to unplug, either temporarily or permanently.