SPLICED LIFE /
TRAVEL (DIS)CONNECTION
ISSUE 05
travelling we are still open to the road beating
a rhythm into our feet – listening to a path
in front of us can open us to a wider realm
of travelling faux pas. I have more stories
from the roads I never thought to travel than
the ones I researched to death or listened to
others about where I should go. That being
said, Tripadvisor and the like have stopped me
from booking into dodgy backpackers with
sheets that are more prone to health advisory
warnings than a good review.
shot? What is that town below? Google maps
and tag. My friend who hiked with me isn’t
on Facebook. How irritating – how do I let
people know who’s with me?
Y
our alarm tinkles softly for the
early wake-up, the donning of
hiker survival gear and plodding
steadily up to the escarpment.
Big gulps of crystal streamwater and trail mix crunching
lazily in your mouth as the tall
grass tickles you gently awake.
Birds flying high, you know how I feel, sun in the sky,
you know how I feeeeel. The horizon begging for
you to run naked headlong into it – forgetting the
precipitous drop off a cliff, you can float up, up and
away. You watch the sun seeping colour into the
dawn, a high angelic tone singing on the wind.
I’ve got to share this! Flip open the cellphone case.
Run back and forth between the rocks, “ I can’t
believe I can’t get signal up here!” Climb the acacia
tree and oh, thank the heavens a bar of edge blinks in
the distance. Log on. Instagram. Facebook. Twitter.
Pinterest. Google+. SMS flies in from mom – Are
you alive? Ten updates ready to go. Wait. I want
to get this sunrise. Snap. Click. Filter. Caption. Oh
come on send… send… sending. Whizz, snap. Share
to all friends, hmm not my boss he doesn’t know
I’ve actually taken leave. Publish. Is that the best
Finally I sit back on the rock and the sun
is already up in the roaring blue sky. I’ve
missed it. The dead sunrise a few bytes
on my outdated cellphone screen. I hardly
noticed it. Such is the double-edged sword
of technology - disconnecting you as harshly
from reality as you bliss out in the connected
sharing of experience. Our app-filled world
has given us so many possibilities, information
and chances for experiencing the world
in a fuller way; it also can have us staring
myopically at our cellphones rather than
inhabiting our world.
I am not one to say let us go back to the ages
of ticky boxes and travel guides written by
a well-meaning octogenarian (though those
can be a blast to follow in the footsteps). Just
a little temperance is needed so while we are
Moderation is the road to a golden memory
when it comes to travel and technology. On
a road trip this year, where I was coming to
grips with tech and the road in preparation for
a world trip I am embarking on, it took some
time to feel my way through the quagmire.
Documenting my journey through my blog
and social media while still trying to be
present to the rich experience of travel is a
hard ask. Eventually I made the chop-wood,
carry-water decision– when blogging blog,
when twittering tweet and when traversing
travel. Upon reaching a destination I would
spend a bit of time taking photos and social
connection (Twitter especially asking for the
immediacy of experience) but then I would
switch the phone on silent and take in the
vistas, sights and sounds. Immersion is a
beverage best taken in the long, slow sips of a
cocktail, not the downing of a shot of tequila
social media.
There is no formula on how we balance
these myriad assaults on our attention and
presence. You have to find that precarious
edge for yourself. Remember that the world is
lived and yes, your phone is a great connector
but as with all things us humans can become
consumed. The idea of travel is to lose one’s
self and emerge anew from our plethora of
experience on the road; that is very hard to do
if you are constantly tied to the world of the
known. Throw certainty to the wind and allow
yourself to connect with what is right in front
of you – then at night send those pictures out
in to the world and give your friends a chance
to like what is right in front of them.
“The traveler sees what
he sees. The tourist sees
what he has come to see.”
- G.K. Chesterton
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