LIFESTYLE | NOMADISM | CHOICE

Is being a digital nomad a wholesome way to spend our lives?

(or are we doing more damage than we can ever repair?)

digital nomads having breakfast at Canggu, Bali — image: flaleman 2022

Am I a digital nomad? I have spent the best part of my adult life living quasi-permanently “abroad.” Often, and many times for longer periods, I am “on tour” with my work. And when this is the case, it often happens that “my work” is “my laptop.”

Does this make me a digital nomad?

According to common understanding, a digital nomad is someone who earns a living working online in various locations of their choosing (rather than a fixed business location). Typically, the main features of digital nomadism are expressed in terms of dependencies, more or less according to a matrix that looks like this:

digital nomadism dependency matrix by flaleman 2022 — with two blue labels added for shock effect in an edited version, November 2023

In this matrix, each of the axes is an expression related to a degree of dependency with regard to one of the two words in the denomination “digital nomadism.” As such, the x-axis describes the degree of dependency on the concept of location, pointing to the aspect of nomadism proper — while the y-axis is with regard to the nomad’s dependency…