Would you still go if you couldn’t post about it? Travelling in the social media age

The real question is not if it would look good on your Instagram feed, but if you would still climb Mt. Everest if nobody could see the proof? It’s an uncomfortable question, but one we need to ask ourselves. Would you still wait in a two-hour line for that cliff swing in Bali for hours if there was no audience on the other side of your camera lens? For many of us, the answer is probably no, and that should make us pause.

We pick destinations from TikTok lists of ‘must-visit spots’ and measure experiences in likes and views

The truth is, for many of us, posting is part of the reward. We pick destinations from TikTok lists of ‘must-visit spots’ and measure experiences in likes and views. Travel, once about discovery, has been hijacked by curation. The question is no longer “how did it feel to be there?” but “how does it look online?” Travel photos earn likes, attention, and a kind of social currency – a way to signal taste, adventure, or even just the ability to afford the trip in the first place. For some, that can sound shallow. But does it have to be? Sharing is, at its core, a way of storytelling. Documenting a trip connects us to friends, inspires others to explore, and sometimes even helps preserve our own memories when they blur together years later.

Yet, at the same time, social media can create pressures that warp the experience. Chasing the ‘perfect’ photo can make travellers forget to look around. A trip can become a checklist of shots, rather than an immersion in culture or history. If we’re not careful, we risk turning travel into performance art for strangers rather than an act of discovery for ourselves. Even budget backpacking gets pulled into this cycle – suddenly, the ‘authentic hostel life’ is just another aesthetic to maintain. Think about how destinations trend. One photo goes viral – a street in Bangkok, the blue and white houses in Greece, a park in Japan – and suddenly thousands of us flock there, not necessarily out of curiosity, but because we’ve seen it online and want our own version of the shot. Instead of adventure, we get replication. For students, this pressure is especially sharp. A year abroad can start to feel like a competition of who had the best time and made the ‘most’ of it.

Sharing is human. Long before Instagram and TikTok, people sent postcards, kept scrapbooks, or filled Facebook albums after family vacations. Social media is just the modern version, only faster and louder

Still, it’s worth asking, is it necessarily bad? Probably not. Sharing is human. Long before Instagram and TikTok, people sent postcards, kept scrapbooks, or filled Facebook albums after family vacations. Social media is just the modern version, only faster and louder. And there’s real joy in sharing. But the issue isn’t that we share – it’s why. If the main reason for a trip is the likes, not the experience, travel risks becoming hollow. Instead of connecting us with the world, it flattens it into a backdrop for our personal branding. This doesn’t mean deleting Instagram or pretending we don’t care. Posting can be fun, and it isn’t inherently wrong. But maybe we need to think harder about why we travel.

Would you still go if you couldn’t post about it? The answer doesn’t have to be a simple yes or no. Maybe you’d choose different destinations. Maybe you’d linger longer in small, unphotogenic cafés or wander into less aesthetic food markets. Or maybe – and this is just as valid – you’d still take the same trips because documenting and sharing them is part of the joy for you. What matters is the awareness behind the choice. Social media has transformed how we travel, but it doesn’t have to dictate why we travel. Whether your motivation is the feeling, the photo, or somewhere in between, what’s important is being honest with yourself about what makes the trip ‘worth it’.