I had no river of news- from RSS through to Tweetdeck - it felt strange. It was like missing school or lectures for two weeks. Not quite isolation. Sure, there was still television and the evening news to keep you abreast of what's going on in the world, but I realized how much of the web is integrated into my daily life. Checking the weather, opening hours of museums and art galleries and stores, restaurant reviews, immediate access to news, Google Maps for planning trips and so on. 

Then there's the whole social web. Yes, the opportunity to update your Facebook page- let all your "friends" know what a great time you are having at the pool/beach/bar/etc. Upload pictures of you having a great time. Postcards are hard work. Buy the cards, find somewhere that sells stamps, handwrite addresses, write a personal message on each one-  and legibly. I let my dear wife do this. Could not handle the stress myself. And then you have to go hunting for a letterbox to post the things. Facebook update sounded more appealing. And of course it's two way- the potential for someone to respond with something like- try that nice restaurant at ... we had the best fish ever. But of course I was offline.

On reflection I wish I had stayed connected. I don't feel better for self-imposed "isolation". You feel that you need to catch-up when you get back. It's bad enough with e-mail, but you also want to check your networks to see what your friends have been doing. My parents appreciated the postcard. It arrived one week after we finished our vacation. Holiday pictures were already up on Facebook and I had Skyped them twice since getting home. 10 days for a postcard from France to the UK. I'm sure it was an exception to the rule :-) Next vacation will be covered by twitpic. In the meantime, four postcards from me. My photos. Originals, unique- but the same message for everyone: "Having a great time. Food excellent. Wish you were here!"