Digital detox is a fantasy

WHEN news broke that Salesforce chief executive officer Marc Benioff had taken a 10-day “digital detox” vacation in French Polynesia, the Internet ate it up. We couldn’t, it seems, stop scrolling about how one very wealthy man stopped scrolling.

Stories like this seize our imaginations for several reasons. One is that the merely well-off tend to obsess about the habits of the super-rich, whether we find them admirable or hypocritical. Another is the appeal of the quick fix, whether it is Dry January, a spend-nothing challenge or a digital sabbatical.

But I suspect the story truly caught fire because, deep down, most of us are jealous. Ten days without digital devices? Must be nice. (Especially when the company you run is considering layoffs.)