Stop Calling Yourself a Digital Nomad Just Because You Didn’t Go to the Office
The Nomag Pulse #26
Here’s a universal truth: not showing up at the office does not make you a digital nomad.
Yet somehow, from London to Lisbon, from New York to Nairobi, the two categories get smashed together like avocado on every hipster’s toast.
Remote Workers vs. Digital Nomads
Remote workers: people who don’t need to sit in the same office as their boss. They can live in the suburbs, work in pajamas, and never set foot on a plane.
Digital nomads: people who deliberately uproot themselves, move across countries, and rebuild their routines every few months.
Both groups rely on laptops, Wi-Fi, and caffeine. But the overlap ends there.
Why the Confusion?
Because “remote worker” doesn’t sell. It sounds grey, corporate, mildly depressing.
“Digital nomad” sounds like a Netflix docuseries: beaches, drones, cappuccinos with a view.
So the media exaggerates. Politicians exaggerate. Even workers themselves exaggerate: “Oh, I worked from my parents’ house in the countryside last summer. I’m basically a nomad.” Sure, Karen. Because a nomad’s biggest challenge is usually dealing with your mom’s slow kettle.
The Accidental Nomad
This is what’s happening everywhere: millions of people became “accidental nomads” after COVID just because they stopped commuting. And instead of saying, “We’re remote workers now,” they borrowed someone else’s identity.
But nomadism isn’t an accident. It’s a commitment. It’s choosing instability over stability, movement over comfort, novelty over routine. It’s airports, visas, SIM cards, and the existential dread of “where’s home?”
If your biggest relocation was from the office desk to the kitchen table, congrats—you’re remote. But nomad? Not quite.
Why It Matters
Because when the two get blurred, everyone loses:
Remote workers miss out on recognition of their actual needs (like fair home-office stipends, boundaries, career progression).
Nomads get reduced to clichés or scapegoats for gentrification, even when they’re bringing value to communities.
Cities and towns build policies for the wrong crowd: coworking hubs for locals who never show up, or “nomad villages” that end up full of part-time commuters.
Call It What It Is
Work from home. Hybrid. Remote. Nomadic. They’re all valid, but they’re not interchangeable.
You don’t need to glamorize your flexibility by stealing the “nomad” label. Because at the end of the day, not going into the office makes you… free from the office.
It doesn’t make you Marco Polo with Wi-Fi.
And in case you didn’t know…
We are now officially the Travel Newsletter #12 WORLDWIDE
