I started the Beach with Wifi project in 2010. Back then, the term “digital nomad” wasn’t widely in use. I had a four year old and was living in Jaffa. My partner was running a business remotely, but my daughter and I were just scooching around town, going to the beach and hanging out. I was writing a bit. Not much else.
Still, it seemed kind of cool to have a laptop and sit by the sea, working on something while looking out over the water. It was exciting to be living somewhere completely new, going out, making friends and getting immersed in a totally different culture, while still staying connected to work colleagues and family and everything else that was happening back home.
Too many digital nomads?
I can’t remember when I first heard people talk about the digital nomad lifestyle (and Google Trends is down!). It must have been early-mid 2010s. Alex Swallow was the first person I met who actually listed “digital nomad” as a role on his LinkedIn profile (and I’m pretty sure launched a business off the back of it).
But now the term is everywhere.
There are half a billion Google Search results for “how to become a digital nomad”. My fellow UCL student Dave Cook is writing his phd thesis on them. Articles have been published not only about the lifestyle (and how to achieve it) but the economic costs of having too many digital nomads live in your city. or the social problems that come from digital nomads behaving badly.
Playing it safe
Well, I’m revisiting the concept on a personal level, because I’m about to become nomadic again. I’ve revived my Beach with Wifi blog (on Tumblr). and re-created the Beach with Wifi global map on Google Maps (not sure what happened to the old one).
I’ve just published my first Beach with Wifi blog post in five years. And I’ll get round to adding the many places I’ve stashed around my hard-drive. There’s a reason for all this, and it’s work related.
Don’t worry – I’m staying local.
More to be announced in the next few days.
Photo: view from the beach office in Newquay 🙂
Jemima Gibbons
Social media consultant and author of Monkeys with Typewriters (featured by BBC Radio 5 and the London Evening Standard). Get your social marketing up and running with my Social Media Launch Pack!
