Why travellers need to ditch social media

[xxx000]

I agree with the writer

I'm sick of seeing people at beautiful locations ignoring the beauty and instead updating their facebook status or similar

Social media: is it really a good thing for travellers?

A few months ago, on a trip to Sicily, I made a decision: no more social media. No Facebook, no Twitter, no Instagram, no blogs.

I would go social-media-free for one week, getting back to the essence of travel, eschewing the urge to share things in favour of actually doing things. I deleted the Twitter app from my phone. I made a mental pact to ignore Facebook and Instagram. I got my blogs written in advance.

See Also
Take a walk on the wild side
The 16 lessons every traveller learns
And off I went into a sharing- and like-free world.

It was a wonderful, liberating experience that lasted about an hour and a half. After that time I'd taken a beautiful photo of Taormina and really wanted to put it up on the 'Gram. So I did. And then I checked back to see if it had got any likes. And then I was hooked again.

Social media: is it really a good thing for travellers? Sure, we're all much more connected on an electronic level. But we're probably far less connected on many others.

I realise I'm far from the first person to point out that the term "social media" is an ironic misnomer. There's nothing social about a hostel dorm full of people staring at their phones and messaging their "friends".

But it's become insidious among travellers, an addiction as gripping as saving money on cheap booze, or avoiding washing your clothes. We're all on social media. We're all checking our phones and tablets, seeing what's going on in the cyber world, adding our comments and likes to the Facebooks, the Twitters, the Instagrams, the Foursquares, the Yelps and TripAdvisors of the world.

It's a bit sad to cast your eye around a hostel full of travellers from all over the globe and see them all staring at their iPhones. But then you realise you haven't checked Twitter in a while, or posted anything on Instagram, and away you go.

Time flies by. It's easy to become so obsessed with sharing your travel experiences that you forget to actually have any of them in the first place.

I'm as bad as anyone. My social media drug of choice is Instagram, an app I use partly for work purposes, and partly because I just really like taking photos of cool places I've been, chucking on a few filters and then showing them off to the world.

It's become a bit silly, to the point where I find myself, while travelling, constantly scanning the scenery, trying to figure out what will make the best Instagram photo. I could always, you know, just relax and enjoy myself – but that's not the sort of attitude that's going to get you more than 100 likes, is it?

I'm a bit sick of Facebook. I'd like to "break up" with it on a permanent basis, but it's just not going to happen. The problem with going without Facebook, I've realised, is that I can't go without Facebook. It's become far too useful.

Not for posting photos of my food, or updating friends on the sleeping habits of my so-far-non-existent child, but for keeping in touch with people I've met while travelling. It's almost a ritual: You meet someone in some far-off location, you hang out for a day or two, you form a bond, and then you go your separate ways. Except, first you "friend" each other on Facebook.

Without my account I'd have no idea how to contact most of those people ever again. Which would be a bit sad. So I'm still on it.

It's addictive, all of this stuff. I don't think it's such a problem at home, when you need a distraction on the bus to work, or you're bored of Australia's appalling TV. But for travellers, social media is an issue, a time-sucker, a way of closing yourself off from the very things you travelled so far to do.

So, fellow travellers, you have a challenge: get off your phones. Fight the urge to share your tales, to brag about your meals, to whine about your hostel, to review your day trip or share photos of your view.

Don't even take a phone with you. Choose, instead, to speak to people, to take in your surroundings, to taste your food instead of photographing it, to make friends instead of collecting them, and to enjoy moments for what they are, rather than how they could be shared.

And please: tell me to stop checking Instagram.

Do you think travellers are too obsessed with social media? What's the solution?

Email: b.groundwater@fairfaxmedia.com.au

Instagram: instagram.com/bengroundwater

http://www.traveller.com.au/why-trav...l-media-10rp4n

[EA2BA]

I really only update facebook when I travel so people know we are ok, and its only updates here and there not every single moment

[baboon]

Once you are sucked in, you will never let go... NEVER!!! muahahhahahah

[jimt3te50]

They say Facebook is like the Hotel California, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave...

[Auslandau]

Pfffft. Its all part of the fun! 2 seconds done.

The blogger probably wrote that while riding an elephant during a tiger hunt in the jungles of India.

[Itsme]

Social media is what you make of it, facebook, forums or what ever only takes about 10 minutes each day for me, no big deal.
Now mobile phones would be another issue, I see plenty of people living on them socializing all day, chatting their life away....

[Jastel]

I laugh when I see people taking scenery pics with phones, most will be average at best. A real picture will be too big to FB. On the flip side the number of people who think they are a professional photographer with lenses, tripods etc is astronomical as well.
I give people about 10 seconds to take a picture and then walk through, they don't own the footpath, viewing platform etc and I have paid my money to see it as well.
A recent curse is the Gopro camera on a stick blocking views everywhere.

I miss chatting to people in the airport or on the bus like we did before phones.

And don't get me started on people taking pictures of food...

[Feathers]

I had more time for these things while I was on holiday alone, and I updated to let friends/family know I had arrived, was ok and enjoying it.
Though I was online only in the hotel at night, or at the airport waiting for flights, because I had taken a phone that I knew didn't have internet connectivity, so I wasn't tempted to keep checking it!

Once I joined a package tour, we had no time for these things! A few of the hotels we stayed in did not have complimentary wifi anyway. Those times I sent text messages home to my parents instead.

[Windsor220]

Travelers have always taken photos. Uploading to social media is just a way to keep it all together. Saves you showing them all when you get back

[xxx000]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

Travelers have always taken photos. Uploading to social media is just a way to keep it all together. Saves you showing them all when you get back

Sorry but to me social media seems to me to have this perception of self importance attached to it whilst at the same time isolating the user from real contact.
My brother travels for work yet we don't worry about him while he's away or need to know what he's doing each day. I prefer catching up with him face to face and hearing about where he's been and seeing the pics.
Facebook seems more about bragging rights and how many 'friends' you have. We go on holidays to get away from home and computers. Yeah by all means take photos but also soak up the atmosphere at the moment and chat with fellow travellers and locals. Your friends won't mind not receiving updates on your wellbeing because as they say...no news is good news

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by Windsor220

Travelers have always taken photos. Uploading to social media is just a way to keep it all together. Saves you showing them all when you get back

I don't think it's about pictures. My wife and I like to travel a lot, and it's amazing how many people are not in the moment, but rather engaged only in their electronic devices.

[EA2BA]

Originally Posted by Jastel

I laugh when I see people taking scenery pics with phones, most will be average at best.

I took photos of the grand canyon on my iPhone, but I took heaps of images that over lapped and then used Microsoft stitch to put them back into 1 giant pic, awesome pics.

I did this also with the SLR cameras we took and have even more amazing mega pictures.

[strobe]

I took the kids to the zoo recently, about the only way to see any of the animals was to look into the wall of phones taking crap photos. Surely you can sit at home and download an app to look at crap quality animal photos cheaper than paying the entrance fee?

[CoupeKing]

Rant on: Nothing wrong with iPhone camera quality. In fact I`ve seen better quality pictures taken on my phone than a person thats gone out and spent 2k on a camera thinking they`re Ansel Adams.

Worst thing about social media, is some tool that goes to a pub, and takes 100 pics of their food and beer (wonder what the group next to them thinks) then proceeds to upload them ALL. Now I could understand if you did that in the company of say.. Obama and Putin...but macca woaza and gubbo doesnt cut it.

Also, when you take a photo of the Eiffel Tower, before you run off thinking how many likes you will get, you need to realise that 1.4 billion people have taken a similar picture, and probably better.

Now a good picture would be of their faces if they couldnt log-in to Facebook or left their phone at home. I think their expression would be a cross-between drinking 3 litres of Drano, and finding out that Charles Manson and Ivan Milat have just started renting the property nextdoor.

When people use social media, they need to be told the difference between 'capturing the moment' and convincing themselves that they`re some kind of up-and-coming celebrity. Oh yeah, thats also the problem. You can almost guarantee a connection between these people and watching 3 hours of reality t.v per night.

Rant off.

[ford71V8]

The only thing incorrect in the opening post is that its not just about travellers.

Should read "Why PEOPLE need to ditch social media".

Get your noses out your phone, and take a look around.
What you are missing won't be found on facebook, it's over.

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by CoupeKing

Rant on: Nothing wrong with iPhone camera quality. In fact I`ve seen better quality pictures taken on my phone than a person thats gone out and spent 2k on a camera thinking they`re Ansel Adams.

Worst thing about social media, is some tool that goes to a pub, and takes 100 pics of their food and beer (wonder what the group next to them thinks) then proceeds to upload them ALL. Now I could understand if you did that in the company of say.. Obama and Putin...but macca woaza and gubbo doesnt cut it.

Also, when you take a photo of the Eiffel Tower, before you run off thinking how many likes you will get, you need to realise that 1.4 billion people have taken a similar picture, and probably better.

Now a good picture would be of their faces if they couldnt log-in to Facebook or left their phone at home. I think their expression would be a cross-between drinking 3 litres of Drano, and finding out that Charles Manson and Ivan Milat have just started renting the property nextdoor.

When people use social media, they need to be told the difference between 'capturing the moment' and convincing themselves that they`re some kind of up-and-coming celebrity. Oh yeah, thats also the problem. You can almost guarantee a connection between these people and watching 3 hours of reality t.v per night.

Rant off.

People enjoy photography for whatever reason, and we're all at different levels as far as talent and experience. It doesn't take much learning and practice to get better photos on a DSLR than on an iPhone (or any point and shoot camera). It's all about controlling the light and depth of field, and you just can't do that on an iPhone. All you will ever get is snapshots, and if that's all you want so you can upload them to Facebook just to prove to the world you were really there, then fine. If you want good or interesting photographs, where you control where you want your audience to see, you need some equipment.

[Jastel]

Quality of a pic is up to the eye of the viewer...

Phones are good for quick uploads, cameras are good for quality pictures.

Forgot to add to my list morons holding up ipads as (cough) cameras blocking views.
Especially at crowded racetracks, concerts etc.

Slightly off topic but IMO most people don't want to see more than 20 of your 5000 holiday snaps anyway...

A general statement...no jokes about my photographic skills or holiday destinations needed.

[BPXR6T]

Don't agree. Friend of mine is in cairns right now with his family and posting pics of where he goes along the way. Maybe 2-3 times a day. I've been telling him places to go that he didn't know about. I've enjoyed seeing the pics. If your on Facebook counting likes you've got issues.

[XP6]

We've actually had to ban phones at work as it was becoming a safety issue, fools to worried about FB and texting than the 20t crane load wizzing past their scones!

[Morexbs]

Originally Posted by xxx000

Sorry but to me social media seems to me to have this perception of self importance attached to it whilst at the same time isolating the user from real contact.

100% correct.Facebook is all about immature people trying to show as many people as possible just how "great" their life is with gems like:
"Just woke up and had a cup of coffee"
Reply-"Oh,I'm soooo jealous.I love waking up too."
It's the domain of the idiot.

[NAK302]

i guess everyone to their own. i know quite a few facebook users who don't understand the need to put a pic of a polished car on a forum and then write about it for a few days.

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by NAK302

i guess everyone to their own. i know quite a few facebook users who don't understand the need to put a pic of a polished car on a forum and then write about it for a few days.

You know some very strange people

[LTDHO]

I just got back from the picturesque Tasmania.
Anyone on FB would hate the pic's I put up, mostly selfies with the beautiful landscape in the background.
Sadly as the driver, I couldn't take any scenic shots, by my GF took 100's!

[Lotte]

Originally Posted by ford71V8

The only thing incorrect in the opening post is that its not just about travellers.

Should read "Why PEOPLE need to ditch social media".

Get your noses out your phone, and take a look around.
What you are missing won't be found on facebook, it's over.

Better drop aff then, since forums come under the social media umbrella.

[DBourne]

Heaven forbid that traveller's enjoy their holiday how they want, and have pictures to remember it by.. what a-holes..

That was sarcastic by the way.

[NAK302]

Originally Posted by GasOLane

You know some very strange people

maybe they're not the strange ones?

[danthefordman]

Its a little hypocritical we are all here bagging people for social media and we ourselves are doing a similar thing but i take your points. I loath facebook and everything it represents, people are disengaging with reality to bury their noses in a phone. Nothing makes me laugh more than seeing a couple out to dinner or a cafe sitting across from each other and pouring over their phone almost oblivious of their partner or anything else going on around them. And no hearing that you just had a coffee is not interesting nor does it need to be shared. This is the real danger of social media. At least with television there is usually a board or chief executive that decides whether or not you are interesting enough or have a worthy story to share with millions of mindless moron consumers. The old saying is more appropriate than ever with regards to social media. "Opinions are like bum holes, we all have them but just because you do doesn't mean everyone wants to see it or hear it."

[DBourne]

Keep in mind, it isn't interesting to you It might be interesting to their friends, their circle of people.

Plenty of people would laugh at the idea of logging on to a forum about cars, and reading what other people are doing to their cars.

Why would that be interesting?

No one wants to hear you've done an oil change, or put a new set of tyres on...

See what I'm getting at?

[xxx000]

^^The article was about travellers using social media

People spending probably significant amounts of money going to nice places in the world but then becoming absorbed in electronic devices and telling 'friends' everything they are doing rather than really enjoying the scenery, the moment and the company.

[chevypower]

Originally Posted by Jastel

Quality of a pic is up to the eye of the viewer..

Kind of. A little bit of subjectivity is good, but there are some technicalities to consider, such as good light/metering, DOF, and composition. You can't show up at a photography competition with an underexposed, blurry picture, with poor composition, and tell the judges that there is no absolute better or worse picture, it's all subjective. It's just not going to work.