Travel on Social Media
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Anonymous
It’s so funny you find this virtuous. Have you ever read Alex Garlands “The Beach?” It was also a movie with Leo DiCaprio, although the book is better. That book is about people like you. |
Anonymous
LOL. You were country before country was cool! (Pro-tip: I remember the cheap flights to Iceland 30 years ago … so long before your time Iceland was aggressively marketing itself as a tourist destination. I went then and I went again last year and aside from some improved infrastructure couldn’t tell much difference, so not sure why you think it became some hellscape tourist trap. Other than you seem to view collecting destinations like they’re some sort of precious commodity. I am going to hazard a guess that you also put a lot of contorted thought into naming your children— they had to have a “unique” name that wouldn’t get too popular, less they become … shudder … common). |
Anonymous
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Anonymous
I used to look at people’s photos and think we went to the same place and don’t have any pictures. That was before smart phones and phone cameras. My oldest is a teenager now and I wish i had more pictures. I take pictures when I can. I post a handful of photos from our vacations. I may have hundreds of photos and post a handful. My photos are not for social media. My photos are for me and my memories. |
Anonymous
It’s just weird how some of you think you absolutely cannot in any way enjoy your trip or being with your family if you post a picture to Instagram too. Like that’s actually ludicrous. |
Anonymous
DP. For me, it’s a matter of mindset. If I knew there was a chance I might post something to social media, my photos occupied my mind in a way that made me feel kind of ick. It became a weird compulsion to think “I wonder how this one will go over.” Or, “yikes, we look weird in that one, let’s take it again… ok, just one more…” When I removed the possibility, it opened up a lot of space in my head to just enjoy the place, the moment, the people. |
Anonymous
My mom and MIL love taking pictures. My mom literally has the same posed picture for my entire 44 years of existence. She does not have social media. I am not so into taking pictures of myself but I take pictures of my kids. We take family photos. They are growing up so fast. I love looking at photographs, pictures on my wall, our old Christmas photo cards, google photo collages and yes, instagram. I usually post once per month on instagram - first day of school, Halloween, some family vacations, when my daughter learned to ride a bike, first time skiing, etc. |
Anonymous
Well that’s you. It hasn’t occurred to you some people just use photos as documentation, journaling, personal record, artistic expression? Or that they can post a photo or two AND not be consumed with the image and projection of it? |
Anonymous
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Pp here. My mom likes to take pictures every time we see one another. She is less about the background and more about the people. She also likes to look at mostly pictures that SHE is in. The other people are the backdrop for her.
I personally love to travel. I don’t need pictures of everything but I like to keep a photo memory of a place I traveled to. If we go on a trip and visit 50 places, I may post once to instagram with a few photos and videos. Depending on the trip, I actually like well chronologed posts. It really depends on who it is, where they went and how they post. If it is interesting or the food is really good, I want to see it. Some people will post a million posts about their trip to Outer Banks or Rehoboth. some people post business class lounges and first class tickets. I don’t like those either. If someone posts a pic of a big fish caught or jumping off a cliff or some amazing dessert, I like to see. |
Anonymous
I've loved taking pictures on trips since I was a kid, long long before cell phones, social media or IG. I have many albums and scrapbooks of my photos from the pre-digital era. It's always been a hobby. Photography is part of how I engage with the location. I love spotting how the light slips over a mountain ridge or how the spice seller is hunched over their wares or that look on my daughter's faces as she experiences something new. It's part of how I experience travel. It's totally fine if that's not for you, but I really enjoy it. IG just allows me to easily share my hobby with my 27 followers, nearly all of whom are related to me. I promise you that likes are the furthest thing from my mind when I'm taking pictures on a trip. I may want to get an amazing shot or capture the feeling of a location, but that's for me. Sharing it with my family and a few friends later doesn't change my motivation. |
Anonymous
If you say so. And the bolded is all old as time, but the whole point of social media is to elicit a reaction from other people. It designed to give you a little brain boost when people like what you post, so it’s completely normal for people to look for more of that feeling, whether consciously or not. If you’ve figured out the trick to participate without thinking about what other people think, that’s great. Many people haven’t. |
Anonymous
Some of us need that hit of dopamine since we have access to very little joy elsewhere. |
Anonymous
I get this. I think I used to be more obsessive about social media and I remember sometimes feeling this way. I quit Facebook a while back and found that was a major culprit. There is something about how people post and interact on Facebook that I think encourages this mindset. But I still have Instagram and Twitter and while I don't post very often, I do occasionally post travel photos. But I'm not thinking about social media at all when I take the photos. I just go on vacation and take photos as I see fit, for our own memories. And occasionally I take a photo and I or my DH or my kid will say "oh wow, that would be a fun photo to share." Sometimes it's just a pretty photo of a place we're visiting where the light is nice or something, and other times it's a picture of us that it just feels like people will be interested in. So I'll post it. But we take many vacations where nothing gets posted and we don't think about it. It's similar with my kid. I do not document her life on social media (no compulsory 1st day of school photos, I don't automatically do photos on her birthday or whatever). But occasionally I take a photo of her and think "oh, it would be fun to share this with the family and friends on Instagram." My IG account is private and I always ask her before sharing (and she has said no to some things and I abide by her decision). Like the last thing of her I shared was a short video from a dance recital she was in where she had a little solo and it was just so cute and good and I knew people would enjoy seeing it because they know she dances but never get to see it. But that was months ago and I haven't felt compelled to share since. I think when your default is "private", it's possible to just share things occasionally to social media without it becoming the reason you take photos or influencing what you photograph or even what you do. But I get what you mean about how it can swing too far in the wrong direction because I think I was kind of like that when I was still on Facebook, where I was connected to way more people and it seemed like there was more pressure to post things and to post things people would like. |
Anonymous
Yet here you are, posting about it on the Internet. |
Anonymous
Of course many destinations depend on tourism, but that doesn’t mean unchecked, uncontrolled mass tourism of the type promoted on social media by so called “influencers” is a good thing. Destinations have limits, and many are located in fragile environments, and capacity has been far exceeded in so many places. Other residents not dependent on tourism are suffering in many ways, by higher prices, overcrowding, etc. It is unfortunate in today’s world that people are drawn en masse to the same few destinations (as evidenced time and again by the discussion on this board), while there are many undiscovered hidden gems in other corners of the world. Tourism should be spread out to be sustainable, but that’s not what social media and tourists seeking the same shots in the same places want. Exhibit A: Santoriniin the summer, where businesses literally rent clothes for photo shoots, but there are plenty of other examples. |