Is travel becoming too performative?

We are in a new era when it comes to travel: the era of the influencer. ‘Travel influencer’ is by no means a new profession, but the chokehold social media has on travel has never been tighter. I’ll admit as a post-year abroad languages student with aspirations of travelling and working abroad in the future, it’s perhaps inevitable that travel-related content is never off my feed. But even if you’re not of that persuasion, it’s unavoidable. That’s because many travellers have realised something: travel sells. It’s cool. It makes you a more interesting person. And for young people who want to do something with their lives before their knees give out and they can’t walk more than a mile without a sit down, it’s irresistible. Why else is “I want to travel more” the most generic possible response to a Hinge prompt? Travel is in fashion, and people are cashing in.

When you see a social media post of someone in a beautiful, interesting place or doing something fun and cool, your brain gets to work, producing that most harmful of emotions, jealousy

The first thing to understand is that this trend goes deeper than just ‘Instagrammable locations.’ We’re all familiar with those. Montmartre, Cinque Terre, Sagrada Familia. It’s not just the beauty and natural allure of certain places, it’s something psychological. When you see a social media post of someone in a beautiful, interesting place or doing something fun and cool, your brain gets to work, producing that most harmful of emotions, jealousy. That person is there and you are not. That makes them better than you.

Social media is awash with people who understand this, all competing to make their lives look the coolest, to discover the most hidden of gems, to go further off the beaten track, and all trying to tell you where to go next. Because at the end of the day, that’s what social media does. Makes you want someone else’s life. It looks amazing, doesn’t it? Hiking in Norway, scuba diving in the Philippines. Camping in Kyrgyzstan appears to be the latest thing. When really we all know, if it’s influencers we’re talking about, we’re only seeing the highlights. With a few exceptions, who I am always grateful for, the content we actually see is carefully edited to give an illusion of idyll and perfection. It’s all image. Travel has become so fashionable, it can be a huge part of a person’s image, or even all of it. For some, going to interesting places is becoming a personality trait, an opportunity to look cool and mysterious. To reluctantly quote Jeremy Clarkson, looking good is more important than looking where you’re going.

Doomscrolling is bad for your mental health at the best of times, but when your feed is filled with people living their best lives while you’re stuck at home, you’ve got no chance

And let’s talk about the way in which the trend is delivered. Doomscrolling is bad for your mental health at the best of times, but when your feed is filled with people living their best lives while you’re stuck at home, you’ve got no chance. It’s something psychiatrists are already calling ‘travel dysmorphia’. It doesn’t really matter if it’s an influencer with a million followers or your mate posting, the result is the same. It deepens the dissatisfaction and the envy. Of course, if you’re in a position to be able to travel, you can go and experience the places you’ve seen on social media or been told about in person. But if you do, you may find that everyone else has had the same idea.

This is something I saw evidence of several times in Florence during my year abroad, often with restaurants or bars; a once-hidden gem becomes a hotspot just because some travel influencer came across a new, undiscovered spot in a touristy city, and just had to post it on social media to show everyone they were there first. Word spreads and before you know it, it’s packed to the rafters with people wanting to seem as cool. Not to mention the fact that travelling somewhere and doing something purely for the purposes of your own image robs you of the chance to have an authentic, truly enjoyable experience.

Do your own research and when you travel, do it for yourself, not for your Instagram account

Travelling and all that it entails is one of the most wondrous things you can do as a human being, so to see pretentiousness creeping in like this is worrying. Happily, however, there is something you can do about it. Insofar as social media is concerned, ignore the people who travel to look good, and pay attention to the ones that are actually helpful and give genuine travel advice. Do your own research and when you travel, do it for yourself, not for your Instagram account. By all means, share it on there, but go where you want to go, not where social media tells you to go. Their life is theirs; your life is yours.