OK, I’d love to admit that I’ve not personally fallen into the ultimate tourist trap of travel influencing, but I’d definitely be lying. In this day and age, it can feel almost impossible not to turn to social media for help and top tips - especially when it’s so accessible. Apparently, I’m not alone in this either - 70% of us are likely to book a trip based on something we’ve seen on TikTok. Perhaps you’re a part of that 70%, too?
‘London's highly rated restaurants’, ‘Lisbon's party hostels’, ‘Tokyo's best viewpoints’, and ‘Lake Garda dupes’ are just a few of the most common questions that fuel #TravelTok. Platforms like Instagram and TikTok have made itinerary-planning, budgeting, and finding top-rated accommodation a whole lot easier in this ever-evolving digital age.
In this day and age, it can feel almost impossible not to turn to social media for help and top tips - especially when it’s so accessible.
The ease of pulling out your phone and typing “nice Italian food in Edinburgh” into the TikTok search bar has, arguably, made making plans almost a bit too easy.
But many of us don’t just use social media for research. Instagram, among others, can be the perfect way to document where you’ve been, as well as updating your followers on your recent whereabouts. Maybe it’s a delicious strawberry daiquiri on a sunny Spanish beach, or proof that you actually made it up to the top of Ben Nevis that one time – either way, there’s sometimes no better way of keeping record than with a fresh new photo dump on your feed.
I’m definitely guilty of this. But in some ways, it can feel somewhat rewarding - like creating a personal log of where I’ve been and what I’ve achieved. My personal favourite Instagram highlight documents an Interrail trip I completed during my A-Level summer, and it is surprisingly nice to revisit those archived stories and relive the memories, especially if they feel authentic. One thing I know for sure is that I won’t be forgetting that ten-hour sleeper-train experience any time soon!
But this does raise a bigger question: has travelling always been this way? Or are we travelling differently now because of social media? Is there now more of a focus on posting for likes, or attention in general?
Has travelling always been this way? Or are we travelling differently now because of social media?
For those of us who do use social media in this way, it’s worth considering if we’d still do certain things if we knew it wouldn’t be posted to our Instagram story. Maybe that thirty-minute detour on a road trip to snap a viewpoint feels more justified when it ends up on your feed one way or another, but would we have done it otherwise? Do we sometimes question: what’s the point if we can’t post it anywhere?, without even realising it?
And conventionally, maybe this isn’t the ‘right’ way to travel – but it’s certainly one many of us fall into.
That said, I’d be lying if I said social media hasn’t helped in other ways. Seeing what other people have experienced can be really confidence-boosting and inspiring. When I first started uni, I didn’t expect that maintaining an exciting level of travel would be even remotely realistic or possible as a student. However, seeing other people in similar situations doing exactly that was genuinely reassuring and just tempted me even further to try it out for myself. If other uni students can do X, Y and Z - why can’t I?
Perhaps the age of social media hasn’t completely changed why we travel, but it’s difficult to argue that it hasn’t shaped how many of us experience it. Maybe on your next trip, it’s worth considering how to make it an experience for yourself, rather than just something that fits into your next Instagram dump...