During the 2020 outbreak of Corona, as I was born in Wuhan, I have nowhere to go in China. Thus, I bought a flight ticket to Thailand and stayed at Chiang Mai and Ko Pha Ngan island for several months as well as working there remotely. There are lots of co-working spaces on the island for a group of people who can be referred to as “digital nomads”.
The name of this space I spent some time in is Beachhub. It has a semi-open space office right next to the Zen beach with seats facing the ocean, high-speed wifi, free coffee and several bungalows for those who also want to pay extra money to live along with the office(and a tiny gym). Most of the people there live at other places on the islands and ride a motorbike to work there every morning. Most of them come from Europe and UK and work in the technology and internet industry or big international marketing companies.
The concept of nomadic ways of life is not fresh news, considering the long history of the peripatetic nomads among the Indo-European continent such as Bohemians who live their lives through handicraft and trading or more recent hippie as a result of the 1960s counter-culture turn. While the word “digital nomads” appeared in the 1990s, along with the development of computers, the worldwide-web, the internet and all related digital technologies, which form the foundation of global real-time communication for working remotely. The cultural and conceptual connection between hippies and digital nomads is obvious: after working until 5 pm, those digital nomads I met on the island usually will go to the same beach where contemporary hippies were practising yoga and mediating, and get some drinks and drugs together. The sharing concept behind them is a refusal towards the common value of a stable life and the normal life path of achieving certain goals that everyone is chasing at a certain age.
Obviously, this type of lifestyle is not for everyone. But except for those who do need a sense of stability and settlement, still, not all people who are willing to this lifestyle can be global digital nomads. One main issue here is about visas. The inequality of passport value from different nation-state raise up the difficulties and restrictions for people from Global South to have the freedom to choose where they want to live and work. Starting in 2020, because of the global pandemic, more people working for big companies from the Global North have joined this group of nomadic; as a result, new types of digital nomad visas to some EU and other Global North countries gradually opened for application, but obviously not for everyone.
Usually, the application for a digital nomad visa requires financial self-sustainability and flexibility in dealing with risks, which has already ruled out most people. Inequality of income and currency and complete different daily consumption level makes the Global south extremely attractive for dwelling in (the good natural environment also matters). To give an example, a British guy earns 3000£ per month while only needing to pay 1000£ for all accommodations with high quality. That is why most digital nomad is people from North Atlantic country and travel to stay in Southeast Asia or other Global South countries.
In addition to this clear class difference, it seems that only certain types of work and industries are possible to work remotely. There are mainly several types of works which make it easier to become a digital nomad: internet industry or coding-based works, writing, design and handicraft, online consultant or couches, and online marketing.
Optimists will argue that digital nomads will be the future of digital working, which will set digital labour free from all day sitting in the office and overload of work time. However, new problems like time differences and isolation from other group members also merge. No matter how good the internet is, online communication is less efficient compared to face-to-face communication. The VR office app is putting its hands on solving this problem for remote collaboration. There is still a long way to go for real-time communication based on the internet works good enough compared to physical communication. But even though this realistic consideration was solved by future technology development, I doubt the less laboured assumption for digital nomads. From my own experience, working remotely requires a higher level of responsiveness towards collages and collaborators to generate enough trust in you. It seems life is more flexible and self-determined, but in relation, this flexibility also requires extra self-control and energy to switch between different aspects of life, which create more feeling of labour in general. It is not a kind of freedom without pain and the price of freedom.
However, if you ask me whether I want to live this type of life in future, I will definitely say “yes”, since it is only a choice of value and it deserves. Actually, I write this post just because I miss Thailand so much T T. Some tropical vibes for you guys👇
cool post! It sounds really great to be able to travel while still earning a living, and I did not know about how the term originated! I recently watched a video about the negative impact of digital nomads on local economies because of the recent increase in remote work. I’ll drop the link if I find it again!
Yes, there are also critiques on its influencing local job markets. Looking forward to your video sharing!