Is “travel” the most overrated activity?

asker of questions Waka Waka wrote:

Eres muy gracioso... Hablas más idiomas que el inglés? Pienso que no. Probablemente pienses que eres muy culto, más refinado que las personas que no pagan demasiado para viajar en una manera superficial y vacío. Qué lastima. La neta es que no tienes ningún conocimiento a través de tus viajes que no podría obtener con YouTube o el red en general.

Yeah, I'm very myopic and non-worldly for not having superficial tourist experiences abroad to impress no one who isn't a clown such as yourself. Please, by all means, keep consuming meaninglessly, the tourist economies need it.

You've already listed "language learning" as your hobby. So no need to impress other posters by showing off.

I guess people like you are so sure of your superiority that no travel experience will change your judgmental attitude. Then it is good that you don't waste your time and money on meaningless travel. Enjoy feeling superior.

Someone's getting defensive. If there wasn't a kernel of truth to the criticism around travel, you wouldn't be getting so testy. Additionally, not once did I posit an argument in favor of not traveling at all, I simply offered some observations about people that over hype travel. More often than not, the biggest promoters of travel are merely engaging in vapid, superficial tourist experiences. All at great cost to the environment and cultural authenticity of the places tourists swarm upon. As an experiment, the next time you take a trip, try not posting about it on social media, let's see how much the experience is actually intrinsically meaningful to you.

asker of questions Waka Waka wrote:

As an experiment, the next time you take a trip, try not posting about it on social media, let's see how much the experience is actually intrinsically meaningful to you.

Why did you even assume that I post anything on social media? I don't even own any social media account other than LinkedIn.

Like another poster wrote above, I only travel for my own enjoyment. I couldn't care less if anyone else is impressed.

Travel is very cool. And I've found it to be worthwhile, with the more exotic destinations being the trips I've enjoyed the most.

I am having to nudge myself back into some travel, having largely hunkered down the last couple of years due to Covid.

A big negative for me in travelling would be the really awful impact of flying on the environment. I think i will be more selective about travel going forward for that reason.

You are so right. You're pummeling this hobbyjogger here.

"Experiences" were a bubble that (I think) popped in 2020.

Short answer is yes, absolutely.

However, traveling to another country and then living and working there for a few years is an entirely different thing. The key is the working part. If you don't have to work or need the money to live in a foreign country, then your experience will be purely superficial. You will always be an outsider no matter what you do, but a few years living and working abroad can be a great experience. I did it as a fugitive from the law, but I'm lucky I got that chance.

I wouldn't do it very much if I was selling insurance and saving for trips. To get invited as a scientist and either have the trip paid for by the organizers or charged to a grant is pretty nice. On a recent trip to France they hosted us at city hall and served champagne etc. Meetings tend to be in different places all the time, so there is nice variety.

WiTuLo wrote:

Definitely overrated . BTW, how's your file lately?

I also would like to see that file ...

We alll know virgins/ incels don’t like to travel. They see all the couples are are reminded of their sad existence. ( Not saying you can’t travel alone, you just have to be socially well adjusted).

But yeah I’m sure the drill you bought is as good as my trip to Costa Rica

vaxxed&waxxed wrote:

We alll know virgins/ incels don’t like to travel. They see all the couples are are reminded of their sad existence. ( Not saying you can’t travel alone, you just have to be socially well adjusted).

But yeah I’m sure the drill you bought is as good as my trip to Costa Rica

Ah, I love the self aggrandizing, hedonism we're seeing from all our wanderlust advocates here! Glad to hear you enjoyed sitting on your bloated, sunburnt a$$. All that money you spent? Gone forever. That's why you overcompensate by unabashedly promoting your hedonistic existence. Pretty sad, really.

At least with a drill, or impact driver, not that you'd know the difference between the two, twinkle toes, I can get a lot of work done around the house. I can also repair things myself and not have to bring a handyman in to fix everything.

Dude. What is wrong with you?

You're insufferable.

I used to love travel in and outside the country before Covid. In 2019 I was all over the place, and then I realized I needed to learn how to love being home. And thanks to Covid, I have turned into a complete homebody.

I did travel to Utah and CA during Covid, and after a long layoff I just found the experience exhausting.

I am also one of those who doesn't post a lot during vacay and just likes to relax vs. cramming a bunch of activities into each day.

Travel does open one's eyes to the world, but I know not everyone is interested in that. Which is fine. I learned a lot about Utah watching someone call some Asian tourists a racial slur.

Only poor people find travel overrated. That and people that love to stay in the same routine every day. They tend to hate it.

Not everyone loves red heads. Such is the world.

It clears your head to adapt to new surroundings.

It’s not gone you see I have something called a brain. It allows me to store joyful moments, beautiful sights and new/ interesting people. And I can use those memories to learn about myself and the world first hand. I can also discuss those time with the people with which I shared them.

Not everyone has to have a “thing” they have to hold.

I’m sorry you are more limited.

Additionally, I’m still young & healthy. You are saving money to be a bitter old man who gives unsolicited advice at Home Depot because no one else will pay attention to you)

Why would a person who thinks traveling is dumb have a hobby of “language learning” this is wild…

This first sentence is resonant with thoughts I have had recently. "Passively consuming experiences" is listless - this is no longer new information, many have internalized it, some live with it, and some live in denial their whole lives. "Consumption" itself - active or passive - is a tricky thing to get around. Everything can be consumption with the correct mindset. This recalls my first "night-out" with my cohort in graduate school (only ~three years ago now, but it feels like a lifetime). I ended the night bar-hopping with another dude and we got to talking about the vacuous topic of 'hobbies'. At the time I stated running, reading, listening to music, and 'all the good things' (which, at the time, meant partying, ambling, & rambling with friends, broadly defined). I went on to explain how these all have consumptive aspects to them, and that I was worried about this fact. This was long before I read or saw anything that would alert me to this fact, but simply come upon myself. He replied by saying that as (hopefully) skilled researchers we can fill our time with consumptive activities because if we are doing it right, the creating we are doing i good enough. Now - and then - I wholeheartedly disagree with this sentiment, but it is worth considering that some people may view life in terms of a net-balance that they have to be on the right side of, consciously or not.

In generalities, passive & active consumption is played out. Expression is a much better lens. I am sure we all have had the experience of going on a run "angry", "happy", "sad", etc - here yourself is manifested through your actions. People can listen to music and express themselves, but can reach higher highs in playing music; the same goes for poetry, and reading/writing. Travel can be an expression of oneself if done right, and more often than not it has this quality too it. It can also repress expression. There still is something to the creative act, which seems to always manifest itself in the peaks of self-expression, however self-expression doesn't have to be creative.

Somewhat related but an excuse to share the genius that is Daniil Kharms:

Now I've been inside myself

And now I stand before you.

You expect me to tell you of my travels,

But I am silent, for I have seen nothing.

Leave me be and let me look calmly—upon the green trees.

And then, perhaps, peace will fill my soul,

And then, perhaps, my soul will wake,

And I will wake, and intense living will beat again inside me.

To reply to your second sentence: notice how the most vocal proponents of video games and simulation are men,,,

Renewed Marathoner wrote:

Dude. What is wrong with you?

You're insufferable.

Like dude. Bruh. Homie.

Look in a mirror.

One thing you learn if you could actually commit to something like learning a language is that people are people. Getting off on the nice Mexicans waiting on you hand and foot in Cabo doesn't broaden your horizons anymore than a Mexican woman telling me about her period I'm Spanish broadens mine.