Digital Nomadism: Fairy Tale or Nightmare?
Digital nomadism can be seen as a positive thing: searching for freedom whilst living on the beach at the other side of the globe. But besides personal issues that digital nomads face, society is also affected in numerous ways.
"Sand everywhere. Not just in the keyboard, but on my phone too. Electricity is not available on the beach, and I only have 20 percent battery power left. Just enough to quickly write an invoice and hopefully answer some e-mails. I move on my towel and try to tilt my laptop’s screen in such a way that the sun is not totally blinding it. Welcome to the life of a digital nomad", as how Charlotte van ‘t Wout describes it. She has been a digital nomad for one and a half year as a journalist and career coach.
Digital nomadism — explained soon — is not just a fairytale. In this story we’ll briefly walk through differences between expectations and the found reality of digital nomads, see which personal issues can occur, and more important: which impact digital nomadism has.
Digital nomads are people that work independently from a location and combine that with travelling. Location-independent digital jobs as journalist, photographer or designer for example are most suitable for digital nomadism. Although exact statistics of digital nomads do not exist, most of them are young millennials — wanting to travel or searching for freedom. All you need is a laptop, phone and internet — and you’re ready to become a digital nomad yourself.
Charlotte moved between cities as San Francisco, Tokyo, Bali and Bangkok as a digital nomad. She had chosen those cities as it seemed to be ‘nice’ there, based on appealing pictures she stumbled upon online. Her expectations did not match reality: no place was as heavenly as shown on those Instagram pictures. Pictures of people working at the beach whilst sipping from a fresh coconut seemed awesome — but working at the beach does not work at all.
The life of a digital nomad is hard. Many just pack their bags, travel thousands of kilometers, and hope to find freedom. However, a lot of things need to be taken care of before leaving. An already-existing business, existing clients and plan what to do as a digital nomad are essential to overcome the biggest fear of every DN: running out of money.
Having existing clients is not a guarantee for success however. Many clients do not understand what digital nomadism is, and ask to just work at location. Even if your clients are fine with you working on a distance, there is another danger: the always existing pressure. The allured freedom does not exist as a digital nomad. Work is — always — present. Differences in time zones force you to talk at non-normal hours and many fellow digital nomad “friends” are actually business-oriented friends with whom you always talk about work.
The always existing pressure is a tough personal issue that many digital nomads have troubles with. Pieter Level, a famous digital nomad even got depressed:
“I started feeling lost. I started asking, ‘Who am I?’ A large part of [your identity] is your environment. When you’re moving around from place to place, and you aren’t making long-term friends, you lose a big part of your identity. I’m a pretty strong and stable person, but I wasn’t prepared for that.”
In an extensive interview, he describes how the lack of stable relationships were tough. Many other digital nomads experience the same issue of feeling lonely even though being surrounded by people.
Our societies are not ready for Digital Nomadism.
The existence of personal issues with digital nomadism can’t be denied. However, digital nomadism also influences our societies in numerous ways.
Even though working remotely isn’t a new thing by any means, our laws and regulations are still working to catch up. If you want to experiment with this, the next time you’re going into a foreign country and need to fill in the entry form, try checking the boxes for the purpose of your stay, as both “Pleasure” AND “Business”. See what happens! If you’re entering a country like Thailand or Estonia, where they are starting to realise the value of having digital nomads come to their countries, things might not be too bad.
However if you try this, entering for example the USA, you should probably prepare yourself for the likelihood of losing a number of hours in windowless holding rooms at the airport explaining your case to the local immigrations officers. Visas and work permits are some of the many gray zones surrounding digital nomadism. You are there because you want to enjoy yourself and their country, but you are also there to work. Granted you’re most likely not working for a company in that country taking the jobs from the locals but you’re neither paying taxes in that country contributing to their society.
This connects to some other big gray zones from a society perspective, namely citizenship, taxes and welfare. Now, before you stop reading because these things are boring — (💤) — have a think about what taxes are used for and how they work. In many of our societies today, taxes are often basically what keeps a country running. Without anybody paying taxes the government can’t afford to pretty much do anything! Now think of yourself as a full-blown digital nomad, moving from one amazing place, to another amazing place and from country to country, you’re not using any services in your “home country”, but just the services and infrastructures in the countries you visit? So where should you pay your taxes? Where should you have your insurances? Where should pay into for pension?
The question of citizenship also comes up. Where should you be one — what is the actual point of being a citizen? Some digital nomads even go as far as seeing themselves as world citizens, rather than citizen of a given country! However, even if you feel like a world citizen, who wants to travel, live and work where-ever your heart desires: the rules and regulations controlling our societal systems just aren’t set up Digital Nomadism at this point of our world history.
Predictions have been made that by 2035, there will be 1 billion people worldwide working location-independently. However, what that would mean for our societies, is not known by anyone. What will happen when these 1 billion people who might not have had pension saved, or paid their taxes consistently, who might never have owned a house or apartment because they’ve always moved around co-living spaces in south-east Asia and who only have fleeting network contacts as their friends and family, grow old and need taking care of?
Oh, you need a new set of teeth? Well… did you pay into a dental insurance or did you pay taxes, so you can use the public dental care plan?
No? Well sorry, no new teeth for you!
Bigger companies are also feeling a change in the way our societies work. Digital nomads are often linked to the concept of a Gig economy. What is a Gig economy, you may ask? Well, it’s really just a fancy way of talking about people working as freelancers, instead of being full-time employed by one company. You swoop in like a rock star, do your thing on one project and then move on. If 1 billion people are going to be location-independent by 2035, what does it mean for big corporations? Will all these people really just work on short term “gigs” or will the trend which can already now be seen, where more and more companies set up or re-structure to accommodate full time remote employee, continue?
Digital Nomads also influence the local society.
Think about the societies that digital nomads travel to and work in. What effect does this have on them? Chang Mai in Thailand has become one of the biggest digital nomad hubs and at the university there, they are asking precisely this question in a Digital Nomad Impact Study. Questions like is there a difference between “normal tourists” and digital nomads? and what effect will the digital nomadism have on Chaing Mai? are part of the study.
Some people draw a connection between digital nomadism and Neocolonialism. Jen Sutherland-Miller describes in her article Neocolonialism & the Dark Underbelly of the Digital Nomad Movement how many digital nomads like to think that they are above “normal tourist” by staying longer in places and that they therefore contribute to the countries they visit by just living there and spending a few dollars here and there. She is clear to point out that this is not the case for all digital nomads and not everywhere. But still, it brings an interesting perspective.
Imagine, you’re sitting in a warm restaurant in a paradise location, finishing up for the day and you’ve just sent off the final plans for a project you’re about to start with a new client. You calculate the time difference and also send then an invite to a teleconference call, for tomorrow to sign off on the details. After this you’re heading off to a beach bar to meet up with Johan from Norway and Mary from Canada, a couple other digital nomads, you’ve bumped into. You’re going to discuss a possible future collaboration. After that you’re heading back to the local digital nomad co-living space where you’re renting a cheap but clean small room, for an early night. Life is good, exiting things are happening!
Like Jen describes in the above-mentioned article, you want to be a good guest and as you pack up, you grab your glass, to take it over to the bar but just like Jen, you all of the sudden hear:
“Oh, don’t worry about the glass, our girl will get it,”
I think most of us who have travelled in so called developing countries, have had this experience or something similar.
This brings up an interesting question: you exist in a certain place, but you’re working for some company across the world, you’re hanging out with other digital nomads from various countries and your interaction with the local pretty much amounts to them cooking your meals and cleaning your room. Now think about it, in what way are you contributing to this society you’re visiting? Sure, you’re contributing to a few peoples minimum wages, but probably not much more than that.
Digital nomadism is still fun. Three tips for you!
Did you directly scroll to the bottom to find out if digital nomadism is a fairy tale or nightmare? The life of digital Nomadism is not just dark black: besides issues, many also felt to have become stronger from being a digital nomad. They got to know themselves in a different way and learned about other cultures. There are a few useful things to keep in mind.
In a recent chat with Emelie Fågelstedt, Digital Nomad & co-founder of Svenska Nomader (Swedish Nomads), she gave some tips for budding nomads who want to do it “the right way”.
- Plan, plan and plan again.
Be well informed what are the rules around Visas and work permits are, determine where you’re going and investigate the rules around taxes. What kind of insurances do you need? Research where you’re going to stay when you get there. Find some Meetup groups or similar and plan in already beforehand, how you’re going to meet some likeminded people to avoid sitting lonely in your hotel room every evening. - Be local
Get to know the locals, get to know the culture, try learning some of the language and where possible, try and find opportunities to involve the locals in your life in a more meaningful way than just letting them cook or clean for you. - Start small
As previously discussed, expectations and reality don’t always match. So if you’re starting out as a digital nomad, start small. Don’t just end your relationship, quit your job and sell your house because you’re wanting to travel around the world as a digital nomad.
If you have these ideas and you have a job, you potentially can do remotely, maybe next time you’re going on holiday, check with your boss if you can possibly stay a few days or a week extra at the holiday destination and work remotely, to get a feel for it. Also when for the first time going off to be a digital nomad, maybe go to one of the established digital nomad hubs. Things are set up to work and you can meet more experienced digital nomads, who can give tips and advice.
This story was written by Ola Karlsson and Menno van Jarwaarde, students of the Master of Science in Design at Linköping University, Sweden.
Ola has a background in teaching and front-end developing, Menno in Interaction & User Experience Design. Both have had experiences with travelling: Ola whilst living in Australia, and Menno as a travel fanatic within Europe.
The Master of Science in Design at Linköping University, Sweden, is a two-year program "offering a studio-based, interdisciplinary approach to design, tackling societal challenges. Established and innovative design concepts are incorporated in a unique collaborative setup across campuses." Special tracks within the master are offered around Sustainable Futures, Transformative Service Design and finally Visual Design.
