Stefan Mileschin

The latest head fad in the Land of the Free is the digital detox.

After a recent academic study suggesting social media is harder to resist than cigarettes and alcohol, US travel agents are trying to sell digital detox holiday packages.

Caribbean island destination St Vincent and the Grenadines will ask guests on the detox package to hand over their mobiles and gadgets. In Jamaica that is just called a robbery, but the effect is the same.

According to the Sydney Morning Herald the New Agers are flocking to such holidays which don't have wi-fi in the hotel, which could mean rebirth for the British sea-side B&Bs. Although it is a little cruel given the fact that the weather on a British away break for two is likely to be wet and there is actually nothing to do.

On a recent holiday to the UK TechEye staff had a digital detox by taking an Asus netbook along. When it managed a connection it was so slow that the holiday was over before an email was collected.

Twitter is full of detox notices. Swedish web designer Jens Wedin posted a simple one this week: "DIGITAL DETOX: See you in September".

Not everyone is good at it. Kate Toon, a copywriter and digital consultant who works from the central coast, wrote in her blog that she tried a week of digital detox and it was an abject failure.

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