Digital Nomad Family?

Published by D Girma on

Digital Nomad has been a slow trend and now all of a sudden a trend of Digital Nomad Family seem to take traction.

Digital nomads are people who use telecommunications technologies to earn a living and conduct their life in a nomadic manner. Such workers often work remotely from foreign countries, coffee shops, public libraries, co-working spaces, or recreational vehicles. — Wikipedia

Digital nomads are people who are location-independent and use technology to perform their job, living a nomadic lifestyle. Digital nomads work remotely, telecommuting rather than being physically present at a company’s headquarters or office.  — Investopedia

There is some observation that the COVID-19 pandemic seem to have accelerated and shifted the Digital Nomadic lifestyle from individuals into a family unit. For a start, the pandemic has had a dramatic effect on remote working. The use of Microsoft Teams and Zoom for video conferencing has increased by orders of magnitude. In this regard, even the likes of WhatsApp video messaging have played a significant role in connecting people where physical contacts were made impossible by the pandemic. Even doctors who have been resisting the technology (mainly in the USA) for remote consultation and the like are now embracing remote working technology, yes you guessed it, for fear of the contagion. All of a sudden remote working with virtual meeting looked the new normal.

Well, with human creativity, the new normal seem to beget new lifestyle trends. If your work is location-independent and there is nothing to tie you down, why not get a mobile home? This makes sense because you might as well follow a better weather and other mod-cons with lower cost of living with your mobile home.

Yes, schooling children may tie one down, but who knows, this may also change and nothing is cast on stone. But again perhaps one can choose to be a Digital Nomad Family until such time to raise new family. Do you know that in some countries (e.g., in Europe) families do have the right to school their children at home, which means there may be a way to be a Digital Nomad Family all the way.

I wonder the impact of this on the mortgage market as the Digital Nomad Families opt for their mobile houses. And, I wonder even more about the monumental Digital Divide between the developed and developing countries where in the latter case the term nomad evokes a meaning with quite a stark difference.


© Demessie Girma


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