There was a time when being on summer vacation meant you were truly unplugged.

Your mail didn't follow you to the beach. Phone calls only went as far as your lodging rooms. Your shoreline chair was hundreds of miles and maybe a time zone away from instant notifications, messages and distractions from work.

Alas, there's no escaping life's realities in 2026, where moments of true solitude are a luxury. Since the advent of invisible wireless technology and ubiquitous handheld devices, you're never alone--even on a long walk at the ocean's edge--if you're carrying a smartphone.

There are lots of national reports and essays about how smartphones can ruin vacations. But they can ruin lots of things. Like all tools, they can be used or abused with corresponding conclusions of achievement or ruination.

Nevertheless, a misfocus only on the evils of mobile phones trends too much toward making perfect the enemy of good in my summer mindset.

I recognize and recommend the undeniable value of "digital detox retreats," and can speak from experience to the mental and spiritual benefits a structured and professionally supervised phone-free three-day weekend can provide.

But that's a form of personal therapy, not a family vacation.

And while both have a "getting away from it all"........

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