Michael Smerconish: Disconnect when you're on vacation

"WELL, I'LL tell you something, this is no longer a vacation . . . it's a quest!

"It's a quest for fun!

"I'm gonna have fun, and you're gonna have fun! We're all gonna have so much [bleeping] fun we'll need plastic surgery to remove our g------ smiles!"

- Clark W. Griswold, as played

by Chevy Chase in National

Lampoon's "Vacation"

WITH ABOUT a month to go in the summer-vacation season, here's the message I'm texting, tweeting and posting on every Facebook wall I can find.

Unplug, America.

We've all become the accountant who's a secret embezzler - the guy who's never disconnected from the office, lest someone figure out what he's up to.

It's time to turn it all off. This vacation season, have the courage to unplug the BlackBerry charger. Power down the iPhone. And stop tweeting.

A recent Washington Post article ("On Family Beach Vacations, Text-Loving Teens Stay Plugged In") got me thinking about connectivity and the summer break.

IT TURNS out that adolescents and adults alike are wondering whether to unplug that favorite device or keep up that 24/7 relationship with everyone and everything. Go cold turkey and leave the iPhone off for the duration of the vacation? Or keep up the normal routine - which in my case requires reading hundreds of e-mails per day?

"With the miles between home and away so easily traversed by limitless texting and by laptops that connect to Facebook and Skype, the family getaway to the beach or the lake has become just another frontier transformed by the digital age," the Post piece said.

"At the Outer Banks of North Carolina, the school-aged play Xbox Live in rental houses with friends hundreds of miles away. From Delaware beach towns, they post Facebook photos and messages. At state parks, iPods and Nintendo DS consoles are packed into minivans along with marshmallows and fishing rods. Everywhere are parents who could not make the trip without a computer or BlackBerry."

I guess I shouldn't be surprised. The truth is, our houses have become a blinking-light extravaganza. Home offices with computers, modems and speakers.

Family rooms stocked with televisions, cable boxes, DVD players, VCRs, Xboxes and controllers.

Cell phones lie on the table, their chargers anchored to a nearby socket. Laptops, iPods and digital cameras litter the rest of the house.

Let's face it: Kids have night-lights. And parents have Nokias.

Most of the toys are portable. Meaning, they're in our pockets or by our side whether we're in the boardroom or on the beach.

Constant connectivity is fine for the regular busy season. But isn't the point of going away to get away?

Believe it or not, before laptops, cell phones, e-mail, text messages, Facebook and Twitter, people went on vacation with little recourse if they wanted to check back in with the real world.

And guess what. Businesses kept going. Friendships survived. The world kept up in its orbit around the sun.

Fact is, no matter how many texts or e-mails we get in a given day, none of us is as important or integral as we believe. So disengage while you can. You'll return to the job more productive than you left it. And isn't productivity the point of all these blinking lights anyway?

My verdict:

I'm limiting my time following the blinking lights to one hour a day.

In the morning. Before a relaxed family breakfast and a full day of exploring.

The kids are getting older. The technology is getting more advanced. I don't know how many more chances we'll have to load up the family and hit the road together. This time, I'm not going to let my eyes stray from the sights to the streaming video.

(Hey, was that my ringtone?)

Listen to Michael Smerconish weekdays 5-9 a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Read him Sundays in the Inquirer. Contact him via the Web at www.smerconish.com.