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Americans Would Rather Get Food Poisoning on Vacation Than Not Have Internet Access, Study Finds (betanews.com) 90

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Americans would rather endure such vacation travesties as lost luggage or food poisoning, rather than go without internet while on vacation. Almost half of respondents (49 percent) in a study commissioned by Roku said that no internet access would qualify as a vacation disaster.
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Americans Would Rather Get Food Poisoning on Vacation Than Not Have Internet Access, Study Finds More

Americans Would Rather Get Food Poisoning on Vacation Than Not Have Internet Access, Study Finds

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  • Vacay in NoPacketLand (Score:5, Insightful)

    by TechyImmigrant ( 175943 ) on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @12:14PM (#59082982) Homepage Journal

    The first week of my last vacation was spent on an island with no internet, so people at work could not devise a way to contact me.

    • Re:Vacay in NoPacketLand (Score:4, Interesting)

      by cayenne8 ( 626475 ) on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @12:18PM (#59082992) Homepage Journal

      The first week of my last vacation was spent on an island with no internet, so people at work could not devise a way to contact me.

      I hear ya.

      Ok sure, in some situations, nice to have it, BUT....one of the main reasons to have a vacation are to get away from it all, like you mentioned, WORK...and other things.

      I don't get people, how fucking hooked are they on candy crush or instagram, etc? Is it that ingrained into the younger crowd that there is a BIG world out there full of things to do and experience (like interacting with REAL people in meatspace) that don't require the use or distraction of internet connected life???

      I'd think especially like you mentioned...just getting 100% away from world and not letting them intrude on your time away would be one of the main driving factors in actually wanting to be disconnected for awhile.

      • Being away from the internet is what makes it a VACATION. If people are still bothering you, what's the point?

        I wouldn't understand going on a trip to some fun locale and spending it staring at one's phone, or being pestered by coworkers.

        If people could peel themselves away for a few minutes they'd realize how relaxing pulling one's self away from the phones is.

      • Re:Vacay in NoPacketLand (Score:5, Insightful)

        by nine-times ( 778537 ) <nine.times@gmail.com> on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @12:38PM (#59083096) Homepage

        I have two types of vacations: One is to go to some other city to explore, and the other is to get away from it all.

        In the first type, having Internet access is great. If you get lost or want to find a particular place, you have maps. If you want to find something to do, you have resources to look it up. You can share your experiences on social media and let friends tell you where to go next. If you're stuck on a bus or a train for a while, you have distractions.

        However, if I'm intentionally trying to get away from it all, not having Internet is the way to go. It's extremely relaxing to know that there's no point in worrying about work, because you couldn't check in or help out even if you wanted to. You are simply unable to receive messages or respond, and no one can think you're irresponsible for not checking in.

        • I get the first one, but it's really not that hard either. Just have to remind yourself the world was still spinning before the internet existed. My wife and I visited Paris, having never been there before. We never turned data on our phones. Just ask people. Or get a map. It's kind of nice to have the challenge of exploring and learning. By the end we had a couple of maps. I had one I kept that showed the metro routes in a way I got familiar with. Another showed good attractions and places to go. And final

          • Sure, I've done it. It's far from impossible. But it's handy.

            When I'm on a trip like that, I'm not usually doing the thing people do where they're absorbed in their phone playing Candy Crush or something. I'm not sitting there watching Netflix all day when I could be experiencing the place where I am. I don't see anything wrong with making use of technology to find my way around and communicate.

            To me, saying I shouldn't use my phone is like saying to someone a few decades ago, "Why use your compass or

        • Don't forget phones. We always talk about internet, but why not phones too? Don't they keep us connected (I mean, even for just voice calls and text) even closer than the internet?

          Back before cell phones were everywhere, another aspect of vacation was that you'd leave your house (and here "house" means everything that connects you to your reality, other than your clothes and bathroom items). Phones, to many people age 25 and below, are to them today as houses were to my generation in the 80s and 90s (I'm

        • Generally, I’m right there with you in terms of what my vacations look like. That said, the last big vacation my wife and I took was to a foreign country where we didn’t know the language. While I generally consider that trip to have been “Internet-free” in that we didn’t read our blogs, stream videos, or catch up on any work, we did pick up a local SIM card for her phone so we could use GPS to get around and pull up Google Translate when necessary, both of which made for a sig

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Falos ( 2905315 )

        >>how fucking hooked are they

        Well, I think it's also a matter of infantile dependency. They don't know local functionality is even a thing, let alone valuable.

        Oops, I can't connect to my cloud service for $book.
        Oops, I need The App to control that small moving robot toy.
        Oops, we won't be able to use that quadcopter drone.
        Oops, I don't actually "have" any music or movies.
        Oops, everything is done in a browser or web wrapper "app".

      • I don't necessarily disagree, but "getting away from the world" may not be what the surveyed are concerned about. It's not about people bothering you from work or such, it is about a host of other services which can easily become a huge part of our lives. For instance, I was on a cruise earlier this year, and didn't opt for the very expensive internet service. No problem I thought. until I realized I could not get music via Spotify, could not listen to various educational lectures I get via streaming, could

      • Re: (Score:1)

        by bozzy ( 992580 )

        Maybe if people used social media less they wouldn't need 1) to post their vacation photos that nobody cares about and 2) a life they need a vacation from.

        Just sayin'.....

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hey! ( 33014 )

      No such thing anymore. Satellite Internet with enough bandwidth to stream DVD quality video isn't that expensive. Now if your downfall is gaming, the lag will kill you.

    • The first week of my last vacation was spent on an island with no internet, so people at work could not devise a way to contact me.

      I set my auto-responder to inform everyone that I'm out of office and will not be responding. Then I disable my work email, chat, phone, etc. No one would be so crass as to try to contact me via my personal email, etc., and if they did they know I still wouldn't respond, and they would have annoyed me.

      Really, you don't need to be offline to disconnect, just make the choice and let everyone know you've done it.

      • I go middle-ground with it. The auto-responder that I'm out of touch is on, but every day or two I pop in for 10 minutes to see if anything is on fire. Why? Because often a 5 minute email can save me a day or two of work if I get out ahead of something.

        It's not a vacation for me if in the back of my mind I know that I could be ignoring a looming wildfire that will be all-consuming when I get back. I'm going to go peek just in case. Then I can ignore work for another day or two, because I know I'm not making

        • Can you provide an example of a hair-on-fire emergency situation that would have otherwise not existed but for a 5 minute email originating from a remote location several days prior to the initial conflagration?

          Genuinely curious.

        • Yeah, I sometimes check email while I'm on vacation, less to head off fires and more to tame the email backlog that will await me when I get back.

          Though if I'm going to be out for more than a week or so, I often just include in my auto-responder message a comment saying that I'm planning to declare email bankruptcy (just archiving it all without reading) when I return and that people should plan on emailing me again after I'm back.

  • Priorities. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Ostracus ( 1354233 ) on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @12:16PM (#59082986) Journal

    Seems to me people have forgotten the point of a vacation. And food poisoning is NO fun, and potentially life threatening. Lack of internet usually isn't.

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Oswald McWeany ( 2428506 )

      Seems to me people have forgotten the point of a vacation.

      Since living in America "Vacation Time" is used up when I'm sick, the kids are sick and I need to watch them, visiting relatives to help them out with things and other "obligations".

      There isn't any time left over to take "proper vacations" - certainly can't take the standard 2-3 week summer holiday that most people in Europe get to take. Easy to "forget the point of a vacation" when you haven't had one in years.

      • I got 2 weeks (10 days) paid holiday, 2 weeks paid sick leave, and 3 weeks paid vacation (going up to 5 weeks by my 5th year) before I began working for myself. I had enough vacation days roll over that by the time I quit they sent me a check for $9000 (after taxes) to pay for the accrued unused vacation time. And I never used all my sick days even though they didn't roll over to the next year (too honest to lie and call in sick just to take a day off ). I'm not one of those people who goes to work even w

    • Re:Priorities. (Score:5, Insightful)

      by stephanruby ( 542433 ) on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @12:50PM (#59083146)

      Don't take that survey too seriously. It was commissioned by Roku.

      They have a vested an interest in making the survey results as clickbaity as possible and as pro-streaming-during-a-vacation as possible.

      • Came here to say this... wish i had mod points for ya. 100% "directed research" which means, here's some cash to spin a story about how much people need our company to survive.

      • Maybe the only time some can binge watch something on Roku is on vacation to some place that they hate. No distractions from work, non-immediate family members, beeping, chirping, ding-dong'ing, ringing annoying tweedle-beeping devices.
    • Agreed, I am guessing the people who wanted internet have never had a good case of food poisoning. I had it years ago. For 3 days I did nothing but sleep in the bathroom and drink water. Anything, and I mean anything else even broth made me barf. It was the first time in my life I thought I could die. I finally could eat a saltine and knew I was going to survive. I would trade internet for 6 months not to go thru that, maybe a year.
      • If you at least had internet while suffering food poisoning, you could at least use the internet while sick, puking, and other bodily functions. A vacation to remember.
    • If you look at the actual press release of the poll [swnsdigital.com] you can see it was commissioned by Roku so there would be some obvious incentive to play up the importance of internet access

    • Re:Priorities. (Score:4, Informative)

      by hey! ( 33014 ) on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @02:21PM (#59083486) Homepage Journal

      People were asked to rank vacation disasters, not choose between them. That's a subtle but important difference. Most people would take *likelihood* into account when answering that question. Which do you worry the most about?

      Most people take it for granted they aren't going to get sick when they go on vacation.

      I have a musician friend who decided to spend two years in West Africa learning traditional drumming. At the time I was working in public health and I gave her a long list of things to avoid, then I said, "Don't listen to me. If you do you'll never go anywhere." Six months later she was back with a liver fluke infection that didn't respond to first line anthelmintics and took three years to clear.

  • That's fucked up (Score:5, Insightful)

    by PeeAitchPee ( 712652 ) on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @12:20PM (#59082998)
    I have found off-the-Net vacations to be awesome. Read, hike, look at the scenery, be outside, do a jigsaw puzzle, talk, etc. People are clueless slaves to their phones, and it's sad.

    • I have found off-the-Net vacations to be awesome. Read, hike, look at the scenery, be outside, do a jigsaw puzzle, talk, etc. People are clueless slaves to their phones, and it's sad.

      This is my weekends, hiking, kayaking, etc... internet can wait until I get home.

    • when my wife and i decided to build our house out in the boonies, at first we were scrambling to find a way to get internet access (fixed wireless, sat, etc) -- but the more we thought about it, the more we realized it's actually a feature. Our cell phones (kind of) work in a pinch; but now not having broadband actually sounds like a nice escape.

      Being outside and exploring forest hiking trails, lakes and rivers is way better than sitting on ass watching netflix. Also if you work in an office all day, shou

    • Re:That's fucked up (Score:5, Insightful)

      by TWX ( 665546 ) on Tuesday August 13, 2019 @12:54PM (#59083160)

      The problem is, once one has access to information whenever one wants it, it's very hard to give that up. It doesn't even have to be about posting things to the Internet, it can be simple information retrieval. "What is this interesting plant?" "Where's the nearest kayak rental place and what are their hours?" "What's the fire danger today and can I make a campfire?" "What time of night will allow for the best viewing of the meteor shower?" "Traffic on this Interstate is backed up. Is there a traffic problem ahead, and are there alternate routes that I can take to get around this traffic problem?"

      While there are undoubtedly a lot of people that can't get away because of narcissism, there are plenty that are so used to having whatever information they desire immediately available to them that giving that up would be like giving up a sense.

    • What does a phone have to do with the Internet? You guys are weird. Just because the Internet is available doesn't mean you have to *gasp* use it!

      • I generally get a local SIM anyway, so I'm basically unreachable unless I want to be reached, and still have access to information as I wish. The whole vacation thing is supposed to be relaxing, not a huge exercise in planned logistics but not everyone feels like that I guess. If I want completely disconnected, the gizmo has a power switch ....
    • My first wilderness camping trip, I was amazed at how long the day actually was without any screens or beeping things taking up my attention.

  • I bet you get the same answer.

    The issue isn't "having Internet", it's not having Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, email, Whatsapp.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tomhath ( 637240 )
      I've taken many vacations where I was out of communication for a week or two. I survived, somehow. You probably could too.

      • You can also survive vacations without your luggage, bad weather, lost credit cards or even feed poisoning - all the top options listed in TFA.

        It's a priority for most people to be in communication when they're on vacation.

        • Then it's not a vacation but unpaid workdays. Your company thanks you for your loyalty. *proceeds to suck pension dry*

  • I like going on cruises, so I don't have to choose between no internet or horrible gastrointestinal issues!

    Seriously though, those internet rates on cruise ships are a ripoff, but the wife has to be able to watch her youtube videos....

    • Going by sat most likely so no surprise.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by TWX ( 665546 )

      I've only been on one cruise, but I'm not sure how there'd be time to watch videos. Aren't you supposed to get off the ship in-port and go do things during the day, and at night aren't there things to do on the ship that are more fun than watching TV?

      I admit I watch a lot of Youtube content too, but thing of it is, that content isn't enforced to a rigid schedule like traditional television. Videos that I don't watch will wait.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

        I've only been on one cruise, but I'm not sure how there'd be time to watch videos. Aren't you supposed to get off the ship in-port and go do things during the day, and at night aren't there things to do on the ship that are more fun than watching TV?

        I admit I watch a lot of Youtube content too, but thing of it is, that content isn't enforced to a rigid schedule like traditional television. Videos that I don't watch will wait.

        She likes watching them before bed (yes, I know that's bad for sleep). And when we cruise, we generally only do excursions at 1 or 2 ports, and just walk around the others (that usually takes 2 hours tops). We prefer to spend the money instead on better rooms/spa access, etc. Plus we don't do the pools because they are so crowded. We don't jam pack our days full of events and usually try to catch up on sleep. My philosophy is, if you come back from a vacation more tired/stressed than when you left you

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Octorian ( 14086 )

      A cruise probably is the only place I'd be okay going without Internet access. That's because on a cruise, everything is planned and provided for you. So you really don't need external information at your fingertips.

      (And I've somehow been extremely lucky on never getting sick on a cruise before. I've often wondered if my refusal to eat seafood has helped tremendously with rarely getting sick from food in general.)

      On a non-cruise vacation, removing Internet access basically means you've removed my ability to

    • > I like going on cruises, so I don't have to choose between no internet or horrible gastrointestinal issues!

      That might depend on which cruise line you use.

      Some cruise lines might offer a double bonus of food poisoning AND no internet access, at no additional charge.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      Cruises have Internet. Just very slow since it is satellite based.

  • How could someone even imply that they'd rather have food poisoning rather than go without Internet access? Maybe these folks have never had food poisoning? It sucks, big time. YOU CAN DIE FROM IT. At the very least, you're gonna be in a whole world of hurt for a long time.

    Adjust your lives to not depend on technology so much.

    Jeez.

    • How could someone even imply that they'd rather have food poisoning rather than go without Internet access? Maybe these folks have never had food poisoning? It sucks, big time. YOU CAN DIE FROM IT.

      Jeez.

      Yeah, but it's fun to update your Facebook profile to say "I'm vomiting up buckets from that meal that I took a photo of and posted to Facebook a few hours ago."

    • I can only imagine they're conflating "upset stomach" with "food poisoning."

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Octorian ( 14086 )

      Because its a stupid contrived question. No one actually gets to make this choice in the real world.

  • As an entrepreneur on vacation at this very moment. It's sad but true. Despite being across the globe and an 8 hour time difference I keep receiving business calls. If I didn't answer it would be worse when I get back. When you're a tiny operation (3 men) it's impossible to go on vacation and be disconnected from your startup. So yeah, thankfully where I am there is fantastic Internet everywhere and most buildings and municipalities offer free WiFi. And a cheap SIM card gets me LTE everywhere I go. Perhap

    • Perhaps this speaks more to the nature of Americans having less freedom on vacation than a pure need for entertainment.

      No one on his deathbed ever said, I wish I had spent more time on my business. Paul Tsongas

      Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/qu... [brainyquote.com]

  • A friend and I took a vacation together to Las Vegas. I had a WiFi-only iPad and he had a WiFi/cellular iPad. The moment we got to the hotel room, he turned on his iPad, found the WiFi too slow and switched to cellular. That effectively screwed me out of Internet access for a week. The room only had one free WiFi connection. An additional WiFi connection cost $15/day. I went on to enjoy my vacation without Internet access.

    • I went on a two week vacation in SW British Columbia, and rarely had good internet access. I'd just download the Map to the iPad and then use it without fancy internet access all day.

      They also sell these things called physical maps. They're useful when driving. They even show the lakes the GPS will try to get you to drive into, so that you don't die.

  • Don't worry. Natural selection will sort this one out. Give it some time.

  • Americans Don't Understand The Meaning of The Word "Vacation"

  • I'm just as addicted to the inter-tube-web-googles as the next geek... but think about it: is a crack addict ever going to admit that they'd be better off without that constant high? Is he even capable of recognizing the detrimental impacts of his addiction? No? Then what makes us think that we are any better at recognizing our own foibles? Our addictions?

    With that said, I would postulate that no internet access is the very definition of a vacation. Just as the crack addict ends up being far more healthy af

  • It sounds to me like these people who said they'd rather put up with food poisoning have never had serious food poisoning. I have suffered through both salmonella and typhoid fever, the latter having almost killed me. When you have something like these diseases, internet availability suddenly drops off the list of concerns.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by MikeKD ( 549924 )
      Exactly. A better head line would be "49% of Americans have not experienced food poisoning."
  • No Internet, how can you tweet or post about your 'troubles" whilst sitting on the toilet?

  • Pretty sure someone in the middle of a full on attack is probably more focused on the bathroom but then again they'll be simultaneously upset they can't get to WebMD or Maps the local pharmacy or get to their bording pass for the trip home or call their uber to the airport, etc etc etc...

    Yeah.. it's a wash.

    I spend a lot of my vacations at music festivals and recently was at one where I had absolutely 0 reception AND it was disturbingly hot & sweaty + my phone being slightly cracked so it was misbehaving

  • Only a moron would need Internet access on vacation.

    • You don't have to be a moron to need instant access to information and services.
      * Uber / Lyft
      * Maps
      * Nearby specialty restaurants that serve ground up used tennis shoes
      * Translation to local language: "my friend is too drunk to stand up", or "I am too stupid to find the airport"

    • Yeah you're right. Who could possibly want access to things like maps or translation services on their smartphones while they're in a foreign country that they're not familiar with or speak the language...

      Then again you used "fake news" conversationally so you're probably one of the demographic who thinks going across the county line constitutes vacation travel, and going to Branson, MO is an adventure.

      • Yeah you're right. Who could possibly want access to things like maps or translation services on their smartphones while they're in a foreign country that they're not familiar with or speak the language...

        Then again you used "fake news" conversationally so you're probably one of the demographic who thinks going across the county line constitutes vacation travel, and going to Branson, MO is an adventure.

        Not only have I traveled extensively, but I've lived in three countries outside the US. Unless you're going to dismiss my experiences as "an appeal to authority", I'd say you probably have never experienced the joy of discovering things in other countries or cultures without the crutch of technology holding you up. The next time you travel to Los Vegas (or if you're not feeling adventurous, Oakland), try looking at the horizon, outside, in the daylight, once.

        • > I'd say you probably have never experienced the joy of discovering things in other countries or cultures without the crutch of technology holding you up.

          Ah I see we're both engaging in the art of rampant speculation. I'd say you're quite wrong. I've been to 3 countries where I don't speak the native language, 2 of those before the year 2000 so the idea of a technological crutch there was a paperback book of phrases.

          However, my recent travels show me that having those technological crutches - includi

  • In related news, 49% of all respondents have never suffered food poisoning.
  • 1). Where I go someplace with someone, and do things. Some are planned, others are not. These are the type where I rarely look at my phone or internet.

    2). Where I open and close a bar for the number of days I am off. These, I try to stay off the internet because drunk post's are always the most embarrassing.

  • I knew I'd read the comments on this story and immediately see all the people praising the vacation getaways with no phone service or Internet, etc. etc.

    There's some value to that, of course. I remember a year ago, posting a story on Slashdot about my experience spending a weekend at a friend's rural property, where all we did were activities that didn't require any kind of Internet or even TV. We drove 4-wheelers around, made a bonfire, swam in their pool, looked at the moon with a telescope, explored an

  • A company that makes money off of internet connected users "discovers" that users would rather puke their guts up and soil their pants because "the interwebs" are more important. Color me skeptical, at best.

  • Everyone should try Internet Fasting.

  • This is the dumbest thing I've read on here today. The headline is misleading. Sounds like the author of the article was doing a tech travel piece, only scimmed it.

    If your not able to inform yourself of health risks before traveling to any country then you get what you deserve. On the other hand food poisoning can happen at home or any local restaurant as well. ]

    Safe travels.

  • For basically any type of vacation other than the going out into the wild I'll opt for internet access. I'm not worried about work contacting me because they can fck right off if I'm not on call at the time anyways. For basically any other type of vacation the benefits of internet access are going to outweigh the possible negatives.

    And I'll be totally honest here, unless it's a vacation to go see a natural wonder or something, if there ain't A/C I'm not going. There was a time in my life, that ended in my e

  • What else would you expect from traveling americans? The worst people you can come across while traveling. (unless you're american yourself, so you probably won't realize it)

  • ... if you counted on it.

    There are so many things that go through the internet these days. Flight and hotel booking, navigation, all sorts of communication. If you don't have everything planned in advance, internet is really useful. There are some cases where I'd rather have traveller's diarrhea than an unplanned lack of internet access. Fortunately, it is very unlikely to happen, there is always an internet café or something like that somewhere.

    And people mentioned "no internet" vacations, sure, it is

  • but the internet is so much better on vacation!

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