A spa hotel in Baden-Baden, Germany, thinks it has
come up with the ultimate in de luxe recreation with a silvery bedside switch
that allows a guest to disconnect from the digital world entirely. Turning the
switch off obstructs all electronic signals with the help of copper plates
embedded in the walls that guard against leakage from neighboring rooms and the
Great Out There.
The Villa Stéphanie spa has made absolute disconnect a
proactive perk for the affluent who can afford the $1,200-plus a night it costs
for a stay. True, any smartphone user can go cold turkey via his own device’s
on/off switch, but we all know the battle against demon apps, the siren call to
double back to the chatter.
The hotel, offering a 19th-century regimen of
customized spa soaks, gym exercises and specially tailored meals, prefers no
distractions from its agenda of self-improvement. It says about half the guests
agree and have switched off at some point during their stay. “It is not a sign
of smartness to constantly look at incoming messages,” Frank Marrenbach, chief
executive of the Oetker Collection, which runs the hotel, told The Financial
Times. “This is not smart, this is stupid.”
A new report finds that 71 percent of Americans who
own smartphones can’t help sleeping with them nearby. Fifty-five percent doze
off with them on a night stand, 13 percent — and 34 percent of young
millennials — keep them on the bed like some childhood bunny, and 3 percent
hold them in their hands possessively, according to a survey of 1,000
respondents by Bank of America.
When people wake up, they reach first for smartphones
(35 percent), ahead of coffee (17 percent), toothbrush (13 percent) and
significant others (10 percent), according to the survey.
For the web deniers in Baden-Baden, the morning’s
electronic comfort may be that all rooms at least have coffee makers at hand
beyond the silvery switch. Imagine their sense of triumph as they jet home,
free to press send on a message to their entourages: “I just paid a $2,5000 to
drop out of the Internet on my self-improvement vacation!”
edited from The New York Times
