We swipe our smartfones with lust, envy, desire…& what happens when we swarm beautiful wild places and ugly old ruins as roving swarms of bipedal locusts?
Has social media ruined traveling, exploration, and our sense of adventure? Sure, traveling has its share of challenges and hardships, but any unpleasantries with different climates, cultures, and terrain along with injuries and sickness is all part of the adventure.
Nowadays legions of narcissistic socmeddy influencers grovel in front of beautiful places and beautiful people to seduce you with their often silly businesses. Even if one isn’t an influencer on socmed, people want to post a gazillion pictures of all the cool places they’ve been to.
There was a time when I was a child about the only time I saw pictures of such places were in National Geographic magazines, a travel guide in the waiting room of a doctor’s office, or a rare show on TV. Now we scroll quickly thru overwhelming pictures of endless beautiful places in all kinds of weather posted by throngs of people. I’ve seen so many pictures of Thai beaches, Vietnamese bays, rocky spires with little monasteries and temples atop them, splendid hiking trails, expansive deserts, and big, snowy mountains that, OK, why even bother to go visit them in real life?
Have you ever finally reached some destination, whether a local site or a grand world’s best, and while you admired the majesty of it all, you also mentally checked on another box on your list and go, “meh?” Because you’ve seen so many pictures and videos of it before? So the awe and wonder is gone? And felt too tired, cold, hot, exhausted, thirsty, and hungry to truly enjoy it? So you quickly turn around and leave? And grumble how broke you are on this grand journey when you scan the prices on the menu? If there is a menu nearby? Oh, so been there done that why bother so let’s go home, huh?
Heck who really wants to go leap over craters on the Moon or trek up Mons Olympus on Mars after seeing so many pictures of those faraway places? Yeah? Know what I mean? Yes, you do. And deep down you feel it’s still worth it, worth it all, except…everything else.
Remember in the early daze of Facefoot when folks posted goofy dumb pictures of themselves, others, and sometimes you sloppy drunk engaged in embarrassing misbehavior? Yeah? And then those trends fell by the wayside when employers and possible future life partners started scanning and stalking everyone on social media. Such silly, immature joy was further ruined by wannabe entrepreneurs who began marketing solopreneur and network marketing MLMs all across socmeddy. How to get rich, huh? Get others to pay you to show them they, too, can plaster fotos of various sundry goods and services – and themselves! – every where on and in Planet Earth.
Then the solopreneurs who absolutely could not and would not appear drunk and stoned on social media any longer made way before the locust swarms of beautiful young humans marketing various products and businesses while scampering nearly naked along jungle beaches or atop erupting volcanoes or falling tragically, and, yes, stupidly, to their deaths from the edge of a rooftop or a mountain cliff. These people in turned caused so many tourists to overwhelm so many destinations the local people, despite the additional income so many tourists provided, couldn’t stand it any longer. Many places the world over experienced waves of resentment and backlash against their fellow humans from everywhere else who loved every place somewhere else literally to death and into ruin. Remember when social media used to be fun as we reconnected with faraway friends and long lost relatives?
Don’t die at home surrounded by bucket lists and other people’s memories. Get out there in your own way. Travel for your own personal enrichment and share the rewards with others. Keep a journal. Jot down notes for foto essays and books. Build up and leave a legacy. Just don’t drown all the beautiful places, OK? Let’s learn to lessen the impact of our people pollution. Respect the locals by being discreet and, yes, even staying home. Discover your own backyards. Your frontyard, too. Eventually everything including our planet, star, and galaxy will be destroyed by cosmic cataclysms of one kind or another. So be it. Let’s go anyway! With intention, awareness, and care.
William Dudley Bass
Tuesday 19 March 2024
Monday 26 August 2024
Shoreline/Seattle, WA
Copyright © 2024 by William Dudley Bass. All Rights Reserved by the Author & his Descendants until we Humans establish Wise Stewardship over and for our Earth and Solarian Commons. Thank you.