If you are physically present but mentally absent, where are you exactly?

It is a complicated but seemingly simple answer to me; you’re at home in a foreign place. When (most) people leave what they claim as “home” for however long, they still never fully escape it. Home is also in that little 4.5” tall rectangle permanently stuck in your hand or the iPad that cannot leave your sight.  It doesn’t matter if you are shopping in Paris, riding the subways in New York City or skating on ice ponds in Iceland, your home is with you and for the most part inescapable.

There I was, roaming the streets of Paris one summer, the city I had been dreaming of since I was 5 years old. I could hear all the beautiful accents that I could only sadly try to imitate; I could smell the fresh baked bread and the espresso that is to die for. Who would think that in the famed city of lights that I would be on my iPhone looking at ways to redecorate my bedroom on Pinterest? Certainly I never did! Unfortunately, it was like this with most everyone else around me and it is like this everywhere you go in the world (that has technology etc).

It did not matter that I was thousands of miles away from my home, I was still connected to it in some way from the moment I left it; that being a text from a friend, a Facebook message or wall post, loading and reloading Twitter, or checking Pinterest to see how I could update my home once I got back to it. I never truly got to experience Paris. I was physically present, but my mind was back at “home.” A quote that came from “Always On” by Sherry Turkle helps to reinforce my point.

“Leaving home has always been a way to see one’s culture anew. But what if, tethered, we bring our homes with us?”

What do you think? What would you call a place that you are physically in but your mind is lost in technology elsewhere?