Why Selfies Are Changing The Way We Travel

Smart phones have changed a lot about this world. That includes the rise of the selfie! It’s the thing everyone loves to hate. The thing is, just when everyone thinks no one is looking, guess what we're all doing? That’s right! Taking a selfie. I can't blame them. Taking a selfie is fun. You make yourself look good by picking an appropriate angle, and then show the world just how attractive you really are by posting it on Facebook. Not only that, but they’re easier to figure out than reheating last night’s dinner. My point is, it’s easy to see why they’re so popular. I mean, they’re so popular a “selfie stick” was invented. And now those are being banned from many museums, sporting venues, concerts, and other popular tourist attractions.

That leads me to a new trend: selfies are changing the way we travel. In a more broad sense, social media is the main culprit for this change. But because selfies are among the most popular kind of picture we post on social media today - you can see why I am drawing the parallel. 

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A new study on future travel trends found that more and more are traveling for one reason: to share their travels on social media. This study calls them “Social Capital Seekers,” and describes them as people who “understand that to be well-travelled is an enviable personal quality, and their choices are shaped by their desire to take maximal social reward from their travel. They will exploit the potential of digital media to enrich and inform their experiences, and structure their adventures with the fact of their being watched by online audiences ever present in their mind.”

I can’t really argue. That’s certainly something many people do already, and many more will likely do in the future. 

Do you see the selfie, or social media influencing your travel?