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Ive been curious, without knowing how to prove it or not, If social media/instagram is really a significant contributor to over tourism? I guess I have a hard b

by tayo42 7y ago

Ive been curious, without knowing how to prove it or not, If social media/instagram is really a significant contributor to over tourism? I guess I have a hard believing its not coincidental. People have always taken pictures around the world. But recently travel is becoming a lot cheaper, a lot safer, developing countries are developing so they are easier to get to, its easier to get to far corners of the world, chinese are traveling more, americans are pushing off buying homes and having kids until later in life leaving them free to travel. The world is just more populated now too.

drivingmenuts 7y ago
Probably something to do with the ubiquity of cameras these days, as well. Anecdatally, I remember when my grandfather bought a Canon A-1 in the late 70s and it was A BIG DEAL. While lots of people had Polaroids and other low-level stuff, this was the equivalent of a prosumer camera, at the time and it was expensive for the time, too. The slides he took were for his own amusement, and the family’s, just like most other people’s photos. They weren’t shared instantly with the world. That was very much a professional’s conceit. Now, everyone with a phone has a camera that’s very high resolution and usually internet-connected. The cameras keep getting better (for no good reason that I can tell) while the phone itself remains relatively unchanged. Sure, it can run more apps, so it’s now pretty much a personal computer that incidentally includes a phone,, but because we feel the need to be always connected, we’ve always got a camera. Consequently, everyone feels the need to overshare every moment of their life, as if they will somehow become important, or that we’ll magically care. It’s too cheap and it’s too easy to spam the world with the beautiful moments that, incidentally, are just like everyone else’s beautiful moments. My grandfather had a probably almost-unique collection of all 250-plus courthouses of Texas at the time, without competing with anyone to get them, just because he thought it was a neat idea. Now, there are probably hundreds of that collection, produced by ridulously competitive amateurs who want to be Instagram-famous.
- ghaff 7y ago
  I remember when people would joke about the Japanese taking so many pictures. Today many, perhaps most, put that level of photo snapping to shame.
- dominicr 7y ago
  I'd agree, it's the ubiquity of digital cameras, plus social media making it normal/expected that people will post photos from a trip. In the past photos were mainly for your own use and you'd talk to people about your trip. Now photos are how people tell each other about what they're doing and where they are. As social media has become competitive for many people that compounds the effect. When I was travelling around SE Asia twenty years ago with a film SLR I was a novelty. At a viewpoint most tourists would take one photo with a point and shoot and I'd take perhaps 2 or 3. The rest of the time was spent looking & exploring.
ghaff 7y ago
I’m reasonably skeptical about the Instagram theory as well to explain the crowding. And if it is a factor, I’m pretty sure it’s not the only one. You hit on a lot of them: Reduced cost of travel is certainly one. And, as you say, young professional couples are more likely to be sans children for at least a period. The somewhat related popularity of some urban areas probably also fuels the experience over stuff meme. If you live in a small Brooklyn apartment, your cost of living may be high but you also aren’t going to accumulate a lot of possessions because you’d have nowhere to put them.
- rjtavares 7y ago
  Instagram/Facebook is definitely one of the main contributors for the crowding of specific spots. That particular tree, that particular view of a lake or a mountain, etc. For tourism, air travel becoming cheaper and the mobile Internet becoming ubiquitous (mainly for booking and review sites/apps) are much more important.
throwaway9d0291 7y ago
I think it's social media combined with accessibility. It used to be that you might find a nice secluded place because a family member or friend went there and told you about it or showed you by sending you a physical photo in the mail or showing you a photo album. The exposure might be counted in the tens. It would then be a substantial financial endeavour to go visit that place. Today, all it takes is one "influencer" to find something new and within a week it's seen by tens of thousands to millions of people, many of whom can afford to visit it if they wish.

by tayo42 7y ago

drivingmenuts 7y ago

Probably something to do with the ubiquity of cameras these days, as well. Anecdatally, I remember when my grandfather bought a Canon A-1 in the late 70s and it was A BIG DEAL. While lots of people had Polaroids and other low-level stuff, this was the equivalent of a prosumer camera, at the time and it was expensive for the time, too. The slides he took were for his own amusement, and the family’s, just like most other people’s photos. They weren’t shared instantly with the world. That was very much a professional’s conceit. Now, everyone with a phone has a camera that’s very high resolution and usually internet-connected. The cameras keep getting better (for no good reason that I can tell) while the phone itself remains relatively unchanged. Sure, it can run more apps, so it’s now pretty much a personal computer that incidentally includes a phone,, but because we feel the need to be always connected, we’ve always got a camera. Consequently, everyone feels the need to overshare every moment of their life, as if they will somehow become important, or that we’ll magically care. It’s too cheap and it’s too easy to spam the world with the beautiful moments that, incidentally, are just like everyone else’s beautiful moments. My grandfather had a probably almost-unique collection of all 250-plus courthouses of Texas at the time, without competing with anyone to get them, just because he thought it was a neat idea. Now, there are probably hundreds of that collection, produced by ridulously competitive amateurs who want to be Instagram-famous.

ghaff 7y ago
I remember when people would joke about the Japanese taking so many pictures. Today many, perhaps most, put that level of photo snapping to shame.
dominicr 7y ago
I'd agree, it's the ubiquity of digital cameras, plus social media making it normal/expected that people will post photos from a trip. In the past photos were mainly for your own use and you'd talk to people about your trip. Now photos are how people tell each other about what they're doing and where they are. As social media has become competitive for many people that compounds the effect. When I was travelling around SE Asia twenty years ago with a film SLR I was a novelty. At a viewpoint most tourists would take one photo with a point and shoot and I'd take perhaps 2 or 3. The rest of the time was spent looking & exploring.

ghaff 7y ago

I’m reasonably skeptical about the Instagram theory as well to explain the crowding. And if it is a factor, I’m pretty sure it’s not the only one. You hit on a lot of them: Reduced cost of travel is certainly one. And, as you say, young professional couples are more likely to be sans children for at least a period. The somewhat related popularity of some urban areas probably also fuels the experience over stuff meme. If you live in a small Brooklyn apartment, your cost of living may be high but you also aren’t going to accumulate a lot of possessions because you’d have nowhere to put them.

rjtavares 7y ago
Instagram/Facebook is definitely one of the main contributors for the crowding of specific spots. That particular tree, that particular view of a lake or a mountain, etc. For tourism, air travel becoming cheaper and the mobile Internet becoming ubiquitous (mainly for booking and review sites/apps) are much more important.

throwaway9d0291 7y ago

I think it's social media combined with accessibility. It used to be that you might find a nice secluded place because a family member or friend went there and told you about it or showed you by sending you a physical photo in the mail or showing you a photo album. The exposure might be counted in the tens. It would then be a substantial financial endeavour to go visit that place. Today, all it takes is one "influencer" to find something new and within a week it's seen by tens of thousands to millions of people, many of whom can afford to visit it if they wish.