The anxiety of the empty suitcase: why does staying home in summer feel like a failure?

Summer has traditionally been synonymous with disconnection, rest, and time to regain strength. However, in the midst of the digital age, this notion seems to have changed. Nowadays, free time has become a showcase where it seems essential to demonstrate that constant experiences are being lived. If summer was once an opportunity to slow down, now many people feel they have to fill each day with activities, getaways, or trips that are worth sharing on social media. When this doesn't happen, an uncomfortable feeling arises: that of wasting vacation time.

Experts agree that this phenomenon is the result of social and digital pressure that has been consolidating in recent years. Constant comparison with the content we consume on platforms like Instagram or TikTok means that rest is no longer perceived as an end in itself and becomes a kind of silent competition to prove that one is making better use of their time than others.

Toxic productivity

The doctor of communication and professor in the Communication Department at Pompeu Fabra University (UPF), Mònika Jiménez Morales, explains that this permanent need to be doing things is relatively recent. According to her, for years holidays were associated with beach days, naps, and boredom, while today "the consumption of other lives through social networks constantly accompanies this need to fill our time with sometimes impossible activities".

For the expert, the popularization of these platforms has profoundly modified the way leisure is understood. They no longer only influence how we communicate, but also the destinations we choose, the restaurants we visit, or the activities we consider essential. This permanent exposure ends up generating "very strong psychosocial pressure", especially among those who, for economic, professional, or personal reasons, cannot keep up with this pace.

This need to turn holidays into an extraordinary experience responds to a change in the way free time is understood. If before resting was the purpose of holidays, today it seems that rest must be justified through photographs, activities or destinations that demonstrate that time has been well spent. In this sense, social networks have contributed to transforming leisure into an extension of productivity: it is no longer about producing at work, but about accumulating experiences, landscapes and moments that can be shared. The value of holidays is no longer measured by the well-being they provide and begins to depend, in part, on the ability to generate an attractive image to others.

Jiménez Morales compares the algorithm to "the keyhole through which we look at the world". What appears on screens is not complete reality, but a selection of content that reinforces each user's interests and ends up becoming an "algorithmic dictatorship" capable of setting leisure trends for the 21st century.

In this context, many people try to focus on spending holidays at home, a trend that advocates doing activities without going far away, rediscovering one's own city or the closest surroundings, avoiding the stress of airports, queues and the need to turn every experience into digital content. More than a renunciation, it is proposed as a conscious way to recover the original meaning of rest.

Summer as a status symbol

Although social media projects the sensation that everyone travels, the economic reality is very different. According to the Survey on living conditions from Idescat for 2025, 29.4% of the Catalan population cannot afford even one week of vacation per year. The data shows that, for almost three out of every ten people, traveling remains a luxury.

Paula Espel is a university student who works every summer to save for the following academic year. While a large part of her circle shares international getaways and dream hotels, she spends her holidays working. "It's not that I'm angry that people travel; what's hard is opening Instagram after a day of work and feeling like everyone is having the perfect summer except you," she explains.

This reality contrasts with the image often projected on social media, where distant travels, exclusive hotels, or impromptu getaways seem to be part of daily life. The constant repetition of this type of content creates a biased perception that leads one to believe this is the majority model, when the data indicates precisely the opposite. The consequence is that many people not only have to forgo certain vacations for economic reasons but also live with the feeling that their summer is less valuable because it does not fit the standards imposed by the digital environment.

Espel admits she is aware that social media only shows a small part of reality, but acknowledges that this does not prevent comparison. "I know that influencers only show the best moments, but there are days when you end up wondering if you are wasting your youth because you are not in Bali, Greece, or going on a getaway every weekend." She also assures that, over time, she has learned to relativize publications and remembers that her priority is far from this projection, even if it means giving up on big trips during the summer.

The pressure, therefore, is not only digital but also social. Summer has become a status symbol where it seems that the value of a vacation depends on the distance traveled, the number of photos published, or the ability to consume exclusive experiences.

The loss of the art of dolce far niente

If there is a group particularly vulnerable to this pressure, it is young people. In fact, Jiménez Morales considers them to be the ones who concentrate a large part of the consumption of this type of content and who most internalize these life models.

For Anna Romeu, an expert in emotional intelligence and a member of the Official College of Psychology of Catalonia, the permanent hyperactivity in which we live is causing us to "lose" the ability to tolerate stillness. As she explains, the ease with which we occupy any moment with external stimuli causes us to stop connecting with ourselves and developing the creativity that precisely arises from spaces of calm.

In this scenario, the concept of FOMO (Fear of Missing Out) often appears, the fear of missing out on something. Romeu recalls, however, that it is not a psychological diagnosis or a clinical disorder. It is an emotional functioning pattern that describes the need to want to be where important things are seemingly happening. Social networks feed this feeling by showing people who seem to live constant experiences, which awakens emotions such as envy or the desire to imitate them. The problem arises when this emotion replaces self-awareness and prevents distinguishing between what is truly desired and what is simply socially desirable.

Romeu insists that this situation can only be combated by recovering critical thinking and self-awareness. "Knowing is not the same as feeling," she recalls. Even if a person is rationally aware that Instagram or TikTok only show a very selected part of reality, the emotions that these images awaken remain real. Therefore, she argues that learning to identify what each person needs is the best way to reduce dependence on external validation. 

The psychologist argues that recovering screen-free spaces is essential. She considers that reducing digital noise during holidays allows us to reconnect with our own needs and rediscover what truly brings well-being, beyond what the algorithms dictate.

In a society accustomed to measuring everything in experiences, photographs, and external validation, the true luxury may no longer be traveling further, but being able to rest without feeling guilty. Data shows that a significant portion of the population cannot even afford to go on vacation, while psychologists warn that young people are most exposed to pressure fueled by social networks and the constant need for comparison. Recovering the value of rest, reclaiming boredom, and understanding that free time needs no justification is presented today as one of the great challenges of a society that seems to have forgotten the meaning of dolce far niente.