A Traveler's Opinion. (Media Meditation #3)

            When it comes down to it the feeling of driving down the highway with the top down and the speaker cranked up is not one that can be captured. It is something you must feel not see in a photo or read online. Traveling is one of the most freeing feelings and, while it has its own mass section of the social media revolution, it cannot be captured by our ever-evolving technological world. 

                                               These people re-create a cross country road trip using a form of social media.

On a beach in Spain.

            Photographers, authors and bloggers alike have all made careers of traveling and then using social media to tell of their journeys. However, I think that the true type of traveling, the soul-searching, mystifying, world seeking kind is not something that can merely be seen online. The magic of going somewhere and seeing a gorgeous sunset or rapid city life or calm waves may be moments that many photographers try to capture, and while a photo may be worth a thousand words, it cannot even begin to summarize the feeling or emotion of being there.

Dog sledding on a glacier in Alaska.

I have traveled to France and England. I have been to the Canadian Rockies and the Galapagos Islands. I have been to Alaska and Bermuda. I have been to Spain. I have memories and emotions and stories from all of these places that could never have happened if I had tried to experience the world online. For me, nothing can replace the feeling of having seen these places with my own eyes. I absolutely love reading about magical far off places and seeing photos of countries and towns I have never even heard of. But the reason I love these things is because they inspire me to go to these places and see them for myself.

Snorkeling with turtles, penguins, sea lions and sharks in the Galapagos.

Social media can be used and improved by travelers and world stories and photos. However, people can’t use social media to stay in their rooms instead of getting up and gathering these worldly experiences for themselves. The internet is no way to see the world.