Let’s be real here: I love Instagram. It’s my favorite social media site, the one I spend the most time on, where I can look at (and post) awesome travel photos and cute cat pics. I have a whole “Travel” album on Insta, full of mini guides and photos people have shared of incredible places around the world I’d like to visit. It’s also a surefire way to be disappointed on vacation. Because let’s face it: if you set out trying to structure your trip around recreating someone else’s photo, you’re going to miss out. Instagram Travel CultureWe all know Instagram photos are usually filtered -- the colors we see on the app aren’t necessarily the ones we see in real life. I’m definitely guilty of this. There’s also a huge problem with users not disclosing if a photo was staged or not (like how that classic gate shot in Bali is actually the entrance to a golf course. Everyone who took that shot had to pay a fee for it). Whether you believe paying for photographs is okay or not, nobody can deny that it can be really hard to tell the difference between fiction and reality on Instagram. It’s disappointing to travel to a place only to discover that it doesn’t look the same as you thought it did. More than that, Instagram has fundamentally changed travel culture. Overtourism in certain areas has been linked to exposure on Instagram. We see a popular shot, and everybody rushes to take the same photo, thinking we can get that sort of exposure and popularity, too. I’ve definitely fallen into this trap. I’ve planned visits to places I wouldn’t normally care about seeing, picking out-of-the-way cafes over equally good ones close by because they’re more “instagrammable.” We’ve all had friends who treated travel more like a photo shoot than an opportunity to experience new things (and, yes, sometimes we’ve been that friend). And it can be fun! After all, who doesn’t like visiting beautiful places? There’s nothing wrong with taking photos and sharing them online -- it’s only when it becomes your main focus that it starts being a big problem. So what’s the solution?As a travel blogger, one of my biggest pet peeves is those “Instagram Guide to [X Location]” posts, where travel becomes more about taking the coolest photos over actually experiencing the culture of the place you’re visiting. I get why they’re popular, and it’s not my intention to make anyone feel bad -- I just think that travel needs to be deeper than that. I’m not saying stop looking at Instagram or Instagram guides (I’m certainly not stopping anytime soon). Just… ease up a bit. Clean up your feed.The first step is cleaning up your feed. A recent study called #StatusOfMind by the Royal Society for Public Health and the Young Health Movement in the UK showed that there has been a 70% increase in rates of anxiety and depression over the past 25 years, at a time when 91% of 16-24 year olds are using social media. Obviously there are contributing factors to this, including the cultural shifts which have made it more acceptable to talk about mental illness, but the implications are overwhelming. They ranked social media platforms according to how they impacted the health of young people, finding that “YouTube topped the table as the most positive, with Instagram and Snapchat coming out as the most detrimental to young people’s mental health and wellbeing.” And honestly? It makes sense! When I get overwhelmed, I look to social media for a temporary distraction, where I’m bombarded with images of what’s been coined as the “highlight reel” -- the best parts of people’s lives, making it appear as if they’ve never struggled or had a bad day. This can end up making us feel even worse, as if we’re wrong or not pretty enough or not successful enough. When I realized the impact of social media on my mental health, my first step was to unfollow a LOT of people. Not because they had done anything wrong, necessarily, but because I was only interested in following people who focused on making empowering, uplifting posts. Posts which made me feel good, not less-than. I followed people who posted about the kind of travel I care about, which I call holistic travel, which helped me break free of the Instagram travel culture mindset. Take a break.I’m a big advocate for taking breaks from social media, particularly when trips are involved. I make it a habit to not search on IG for places I’m planning on traveling to, to avoid the pitfalls of Instagram travel culture mentioned earlier. If a place is really worth visiting, I’ll find it in my research. If not, then it’s okay if I missed out on that perfect shot, because I was doing more memorable things with my time than clicking the camera button. When I’m on vacation, I take a ton of photos, but I also know when to put the phone down. It takes discipline, and sometimes even setting rules and time limits: no photos at meals, no more than 20-30% of my time at a location spent photographing, etc. It may seem a little strict, but this is what I’ve found works best for me when creating the kinds of trips I want to take. By setting my phone down and not worrying about what I should be posting to the ‘gram, I can live in the moment and truly experience what I’m there to experience! I’ll still go out of my way every once in a while to get a cool shot (I’m an artist, and human at that), but when I do, it’s because it’s something I truly want to see, not just something I think will be popular on Instagram. What do you think? Are you over Instagram travel? Like this post? Why not share it?If you enjoyed this article, please leave me a comment telling me what you think! Or, if you found it useful, share it with your friends! You'll be helping me turn my passion for travel into a business, and more importantly, you'll be helping your friends out with any travel questions they might have, too. See more adventures!If you liked this post, you may also like:
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Hi, there! Call me Kris. I’m a world traveler, author and artist working to showcase the world's beauty and inspire you to find your confidence to see the world!
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