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?  Continue reading →