Is social media ruining our experience of travel?

[dropcap]A[/dropcap]s I proudly showed my ‘HistSoc Hits Berlin’ photo album to my family, I found myself looking at photos of things that I didn’t remember seeing myself. “Were you even there?”, I was asked, as I justified another over-edited picture of a unknown statue with, “I don’t remember what it is but it looks good, doesn’t it?”. I began to question whether I had sacrificed the real, tangible moment all in the name of getting a good Instagram picture.

As the plane touched down in Berlin, I waved goodbye to my 3G and spent the five days totally reliant upon the slightly dodgy hotel Wi-Fi to get my internet fix. Did this stop me from taking an excessive amount of pictures and editing until they were nearly unrecognisable? As is evident from my Instagram and Twitter feed, no it did not.

Social media has, undoubtedly, provided a way for travellers to share their experiences. Through social media platforms, the opportunity for companies to gain exposure on a global scale is immense. At pretty much the touch of a button, people can ‘insta’ or ‘tweet’ pictures from anywhere in the world for their friends and family to see from the comfort of their own living room. It is a way to educate and inspire others, with many travel bloggers making a living out of sharing their travel experiences on different forms of social media. On my recent travels, social media has been a great way for me to share my travel experiences and document my time in places that I may never get to visit again. Despite this, for every Instagram post, I am ashamed to say, there was an ulterior motive. I wanted Instagram likes!

Through social media platforms, the opportunity for companies to gain exposure on a global scale is immense.

I wasn’t taking the pictures for my own benefit, I was taking them to impress other people. Although social media has many positives, it also puts a lot of pressure on us to present ourselves and our experiences in a certain way. It seems that it is more important now to show others what we are experiencing, rather than experiencing it for ourselves. For many of us, we walked around Berlin looking for our next Instagram post rather than appreciating the real life experiences and views that were in front of us there and then. I saw Berlin, for the most part, through a fancy Instagram filter and not with my own eyes. A camera may never lie, but a quick Valencia filter and brightness adjustment really can make a rainy day in Germany look like I had actually taken a trip to the Bahamas. My pictures were cropped and edited so much that my holiday snaps are nothing like the Berlin that I experienced.

Although social media has many positives, it also puts a lot of pressure on us to present ourselves and our experiences in a certain way

Not so Instagram-worthy? Image: Jamie Jenkins

Before I had been introduced to the world of social media and picture editing, I was lucky enough to go away to New York with my family. Years later, when we look back on the photos that were never edited to within an inch of their lives, they are still familiar to me. I look back on the rainy days and even my questionable outfit choices with fondness. These pictures may not have been raking in the likes, or shared to the world (thankfully), but they remind me of the New York I experienced and the unedited memories that I made.

As I write this, I know that I will not stop taking an excessive amount of pictures everywhere I go. I love being able to relive my travel memories again and again, but maybe next time I’ll take it easy on the filters…