The Changing Face of Travel

    The other day I visited an Australian friend who was working at the reception at a hostel here in Copenhagen. We had a few cheeky beers and compared notes on the places we’d traveled, the Australian/ Canadian bond, and the experience of being expats. Where things got interesting however was when the talk turned to how we felt hostels have changed.  Our consensus was that new technologies have negatively altered how people interact. The major culprits being laptops and Facebook.

    Ten years ago no one would ever travel with a laptop. They were WAY to expensive and the threat of losing or having one stolen was far too risky.  Even 3 – 4 years ago they were still too expensive to risk. Now though the cost has come down so much that maybe even half, or more..., of the travelers have one. As a result travelers sit typing away to their friends and family in another part of the world rather than talk to somebody sitting at the next table in the hostel. What’s worse is that a norm has developed too; it’s generally seen as rude to interrupt someone using their laptop. They’re wired in and not to be disturbed kind of like in the old days of internet cafes.

   
     The debate about Facebook wages on. There’s no doubt, it’s a unique way to stay in touch with people. Having been a traveler in the early 2000’s I know that a person has to be a really good friend to maintain a regular emailing relationship.  Facebook bridges that gap by giving smatterings of information about your friend’s lives while still being personal unlike a group email. When you pair this with statuses you have the perfect medium for quick sound bites that show that you are paying attention. Where things get negative is Facebook’s addictive quality. Who hasn’t had the experience of continually refreshing their Facebook news feed despite no new posts?...  it’s like surfing channels when nothing’s on.

      In hostels now people are pathologically wired into Facebook and disconnected from the social world right there. Talking for a few minutes to your friends back home and putting up some pictures is cool, but stretching those few minutes to hours at the expense of meeting all the international people in the hostel? Seems like a bad trade off. Really, it makes me long to see people carrying a good book. At least the majority of people want to put a book down and chat and it’s not that rude to get them to do so. Travel is about challenging and redefining your own character and personality, not further honing your cyber persona. Ironically too a person’s Facebook intrigue is highest while they’re traveling so they receive more attention and are even more so drawn to it. The new generation of travelers need to quit chasing red status notifications, and the brief flicker of self esteem it brings, and start trying to make more lasting friends in the hostel. The rewards for that can be life long...