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A NEW REPORT INTO online behaviour shows that 15 million people in the UK have undertaken a “digital detox” to curb their online activity.
The findings are in the latest Ofcom Communications Market Report 2016, which said that one in three adult internet users has sought time offline, with one in 10 doing it in the last week alone.
It said that of these people:
As a result, a third of people said they felt more productive, 27% found it liberating, and a quarter enjoyed life more.
However, 16% experienced the dreaded FOMO (fear of missing out), while 15% felt lost and 14% felt cut-off.
The reasons behind the digital detoxes were numerous:
With nine in 10 adults reporting going online every day, being ‘connected’ is seen as a core part of many people’s daily lives, with many respondents claiming to feel lost without it and admitting to being ‘hooked’ on their smartphones, tablets or other connected devices. The internet is highly valued for facilitating communications and preventing boredom, but time spent online does have its drawbacks. Four in 10 internet users say they spend too much time online, and report negative effects on their work or personal lives, such as being late for work or missing out on sleep.
Here in Ireland, a Digital Detox weekend has even been set up to help people end their attachment to their devices.
Keith Corcoran, a meditation instructor from the course, told us in January:
Our minds are going always from morning until night, thinking about the past and the present and the future. I’ve noticed myself over the years that your mind is not really switching off.
So we want to know – what about you: Have you ever done a digital detox?
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An education campaign on how to enter and exit a motorway is badly needed.
And roundabouts.
Agreed
There has been, for motorways and roundabouts. It was all for TV for months. I’ve never seen an ad for a 3 lane roundabout though.
No they just have 2 slow down
I hope she’s OK but for gods sake, that’s a huge exit and very well sign posted as it’s to the airport! Should be impossible to crash here. Particularly at that time of day. Driver inability the problem here. But again hope she is OK
I’ve held my full licence for 7 years and have never driven on a motorway. I’m in the North-West, we don’t have any. I drive to Meath occasionally to visit my sister and always take the motorway free route. I’ve got such a mental block about doing it, even though I know that logically it’s just a stretch of road.
Looks like a blurred out yellow reg plate to me. Heading northbound too. Perhaps we should point out the shortcomings in the licensing and testing system up north too? Not that I disagree with any of the comments above. Hopefully she is ok.
Motorways ate the safest roads in the country Gemma
Bet you’ll find speed and or late lane change is the reason. Not the first car flipped at this spot.
Most Driving instructors offer motorway Tuition, give it a go, at least you can say you were one of the few who were taught to drive correctly on a motorway
They are if the likes of gemma stays off them, incompetent driving is a danger to others,
Yes. Some elements of practical test should involve time on motorway. Junctions and roundabouts.
I never understood how you could not drive on a motorway to your driving test but with zero experience can drive on one on the way home. Should absolutely be part of the driver learning process because most Irish people have not a bog how to drive on one.
The vast majority of Irish drivers don’t know how to use motorways. On a 120km/h motorway with a hogger driving in lane 4 at 80km/h they think every car to his/her left must not pass.
Cant agree more.. dead right
Dual carriageways are almost the very same as motorways, most with slipways. L drivers can be thought on these roads but most driving lessons by instructors follow driving test routes so no real skill is needed in reading the road just a good memory of what is up ahead. These driving instructors I no-doubt have a high pass rate but they are not preparing the new drivers for the road
As this crash happened in a reduced speed limit area if mechanical failure isn’t the cause then drivers ability needs to be questioned.
No deaths on Irish roads so far in 2016, which is great.
Sweet ! And only 364 days left to go.
She gave it a good rattle though aww well better luck next time.
I bet she was on her phone veered to the left and ramped it up the crash barrier and flipped over. You can see tyre tracks in the grass between the barriers and the indent in the barrier when it came off.
Horrifyingly there are people going about their business at this moment and they will be part of the 2016 death statistics on the road, so for some Christmas just gone was their last, they just do not know it yet
Looks like her rear axle came off – there could have been a problem with the vehicle. But yeah – you need to slow right down at that junction
Axle looks ok. You can see the hub on the left side.
My guess is that the rear wheels fell off. You can see then stacked on top of each other beside the Gardai. Unenlightened bolts perhaps. Maybe the driver works for Dublin Bus and did not know how to check them.
Good observation. Ties in with the previous that the car went out of control: rear wheel probably whacked the barrier with such force it knocked it clean off, then leaving the rear underbody to snag the tarmac as it swung in the opposite direction which flipped it.
I once got a new set of tyres fitted. About a day later on way to work on m7 my front wheel started making strange noises. My husband said to drive home slowly. When I got home he took cover off wheel & 4 wheelnuts fell out of the wheel. Luckily there were 5 and 1 was still in place. He checked remaining wheels and all were loose. Frightening.
That was a friendly reminder to everyone. I was not wagging a finger.
I well remember getting my first car back from a certain cheap and Kwik place with 3 wheelnuts on the front left wheel. They’d sheared off the actual bolt part as well from over – tightening, and just slapped on the hubcap over it. I went back and complained. They looked at me like I’d 18 heads: “What’s your problem” like!
No rear axles on front wheel drive cars. Independent hubs….which were ripped clean off when dopey drove into the crash barrier. Another day on the M50, another snoozers car bites the dust.
Everyone has made a mistake on road at some point … There but for the … And all that ….
Hope everything ok and it turns out to be a cheap lesson for driver
Start of another year of mad,stupid driving on M 50 and other roads around the country.
Credit where credit is due…it takes some effort to flip a car it doesn’t just happen
No motorway testing at all on the Irish test. How is that allowed. Surely the eu could get involved and force the hand of the government. You pass your test and can go straight onto a four lane motorway you have no experience of or education on. My better half is foreign and she can’t believe how bad our general driving is.
Yes foreigners are great drivers until they arrive here and then they like to drive without insurance with alcohol while speeding.
Sure you can fail your test and drive home. Great little country once ‘the man’ is making money
Your girlfriend should look up the stats on road crashes by country. Compaired to other countries Ireland is among the top 20% of least dangerous drivers.
Statistically motorways are the safest roads to drive on,I can’t for the life of me work out how there seems to be so many accidents on the M50 bearing in mind the speed limit is 100kph the same as most roads across the state which are in much worse state,with blind spots,traffic both ways,hedges,hidden junctions and possibly slow moving vehicles eg.tractors.
Also not needing to know how to change a tyre is just ludicrous. It is probably the one thing every motorist will go through in their life. Again not part of the test.
We pay the AA to that and in fairness it’s impossible to change tyres on new cars these days. I know how to change a tyre but I don’t have the strength required.
There isnt a huge strength needed, it a skill that can and should be learnt.
Easy excuse Donna. Some people cannot afford to pay Aa or drive new cars. Realistically there is not a lot of strength required 90% of the time. It is something that should be mandatory. Also your assumption on foreign drivers is a very uneducated assumption. Per head of population more Irish drivers without tax and insurance and drink driving than foreigners i would imagine. My wife has a driver licence from 3 countries on 3 continents inc Ireland. It’s only her opinion but she thinks we are not up to scratch on other developed countries.
how often do you use this skill? you do need strength, I have seen strong men struggle with this skill.
Your wife’s assumption on us is ok? Anyone can get a licence but it doesn’t make them an expert. Drink driving per non nationals here is high.
Not disputing that at all Donna. Just saying its not low among Irish people.
She is not an expert. She has lived on 3 continents earned her driving license in all 3 and in her opinion our driving is not great especially on motorways. Her biggest gripe is actually people going to slow on motorways here as in doing 70 in the middle lane on the m50.
Texting on phone,women always .
Not just women Jackcrabbe, plenty of male car/van/truck/bus drivers also… Very little chance of being caught and the penalties are not much of a deterrent…
I hope she fully recovers. Most drivers in this country seem to have no clue about driving on motorways. They stay in the centre lane at 5kph under the limit and refuse to move in to the nearside lane! I have personally observed mainly women doing this and often on they are on a mobile phone; usually with fog lights on front and rear dazzling other drivers.
I didn’t realize endangering idiots using mobile phones while on the road/motorway was gender specific! Many thanks for the insight!
The left hand bend at that exit suddenly gets very sharp. Not designed well at all. Easy to get caught out there if going too fast. Hope she’s ok..
Dont go too fast so. Problem solved.
The point I’m making is that bend is very deceptive, you may think you are driving slowly enough and then get a nasty suprise…
Shocking driving by this Woman!
I hope DFB and the Gards send the driver’s insurance company the bill for their time, and the NRA for the barrier she drove into!
Al right…ever hear of an accident? Unless less of course you know every actual fact about what happened here?
Regarding changing tyres, I would argue that there is a lot of strength needed..lifting a wheel out of the well in boot is not easy and brute force is sometimes needed to loosen the nuts. I’ve changed a few in my day but wouldn’t be physically able now. The last time I tried to change one (c.2006) I had to call on the kindness of the manager and chef in the Yeats County Inn to take off the wheel, removing the wheel nuts was impossible for me. They were lovely gentlemen. Thanks again lads!
For the record I think that every driver should know HOW to change a wheel and that every driver should ensure that the wheel nuts on their car are not impossible to remove without a hydraulic thingy! Someone had gone through the process with me when I got first car, making sure I had decent brace and jack and that I knew how to use them. I gratefully accepted any assistance though.
you can buy extendable wheel wrenches that take the effort out of it, the miniature wheel brace that comes with car is barely fit for purpose and often require someone jumping on them to brake the wheel nuts free.
break
Is that why they’re called ” Slip Roads ” ?
She had a eMERGEncy
One of the wheels probably wasn’t tightened and came off the vehicle.
It’s a lot more common than you think especially with aftermarket alloy wheels.
This I know!
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