[HN Gopher] The Instagram capital of the world is a terrible pla...
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The Instagram capital of the world is a terrible place to be
Author : imartin2k
Score : 34 points
Date : 2022-10-09 09:16 UTC (13 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.vox.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.vox.com)
| adamgordonbell wrote:
| Here is a darker, but better, version of this thesis, from a pre-
| instragram time: To be a mass tourist, for me,
| is to become a pure late-date American: alien, ignorant, greedy
| for something you cannot ever have, disappointed in a way you can
| never admit. It is to spoil, by way of sheer
| ontology, the very unspoiledness you are there to experience. It
| is to impose yourself on places that in all noneconomic ways
| would be better, realer, without you. It is, in lines
| and gridlock and transaction after transaction, to confront a
| dimension of yourself that is as inescapable as it is painful: As
| a tourist, you become economically significant but existentially
| loathsome, an insect on a dead thing.
| im3w1l wrote:
| The notion of experiencing an unspoiled place is getting less
| and less realistic. But it's not the only possible goal. We
| could set others. Embracing a role of active participant rather
| than passive observer. Engaging in a mutually beneficial manner
| rather than trying to see without being seen.
| likeabbas wrote:
| I got super lucky to have booked an Airbnb with the most
| gorgeous, dead center, view at EUR200/night because it was a
| brand new listing that has no reviews. It was a wonderful stop on
| my month long trip in Italy earlier this year. If you have an SO
| I highly recommend for the vibes
| Arbortheus wrote:
| My mum has a philosophy that when travelling you'll have more
| enjoyment by visiting the second or third best version of
| everything. You'll turn up at a tourist attraction and be
| trampled on by a biblical quantity of people, then turn a corner
| to the lesser-attraction and it'll be practically desserted.
|
| In Rome, don't go to the Colosseum, go to the Baths of Caracalla.
|
| In Cambodia, go to Angkor Wat for a little while, but spend more
| time exploring the other temples - because you'll find there are
| a fraction of the tourists and there are plenty of fabulous
| temples to explore!
|
| I think in a world of almost 8 billion people some compromise
| when travelling is necessary and healthy, for the preservation of
| these locations, but also your own enjoyment.
| HollywoodZero wrote:
| I am 100% supportive and in agreement of this.
|
| Case in point was going to Athens for a work event. I felt like
| the Parthenon was disappointing experience. The crowds were
| terrible. You can't get anywhere near the actual building. And
| it's often under some type of renovation/construction, so
| there's scaffolding everywhere. There are no trees, so it's
| basically it's a bit of a hike, waiting in lines, and then
| without shade you're out in the blazing sun (if in Summer
| time).
|
| Afterwards I went to another site in Athens, the Ancient Agora
| of Athens. Wow, what a completely different experience. It was
| mostly empty. But there were several big buildings to actually
| walk up to and into. There were remnants of statues and other
| historical items that made it super interesting. There were
| also trees, for shade and the grounds were really well kept.
|
| https://goo.gl/maps/pGRysme3D91Kt8Q7A if anyone is interested
| in seeing some of the photos of the location. I had never heard
| of it, but had a few hours to explore and this location saved
| my Athens experience.
| fragmede wrote:
| Don't go to Times Square in New York, either.
| walrus01 wrote:
| If you want to take the subway to/from Bryant Park, which is
| a pretty nice area, you're going to end up using one of the
| times square stations. Unless you're coming from the
| east/west direction. Don't hang out in times square,
| however...
|
| The unusual behaviors of the tourists in times square are
| themselves a tourist attraction, a few times for the novelty,
| if that makes any sense.
| louky wrote:
| It's amusing the tourists are seen that way in times square
| now, versus the different population that gained it
| notoriety a few decades ago.
| bitwize wrote:
| I used to hang out in the Virgin Records store in Times
| Square. I first saw the video game Unreal there.
| dominotw wrote:
| My philosophy is just stay home on public holidays. Luckily my
| employer lets me swap out public holidays for days of my
| choosing. So I end up working every public holiday.
|
| Ofcourse this doesn't work if you have family that gets public
| holidays. Works great for me.
| Hallucinaut wrote:
| Also try to go outside of regular hours, often meaning finding
| alternative transport. At least in Angkor Wat you don't have to
| take a bus and then outside of those core hours you have lots
| of alone time.
|
| Granted this experience was pre-iPhone so the specific example
| may not hold!
| neither_color wrote:
| Im the first person in my family to leave the continent and I
| have absolutely zero shame about being a mass tourist in a place
| my great grandparents could only dream of visiting and being
| merely "adjacent" to rich people. Middle class americans' toxic
| nihilism and self loathing is exhausting to read sometimes.
|
| I went to the Eiffel tower because it's the eiffel tower. I know
| I'm not unique, I didnt need it to be a unique experience because
| I wasn't trying to prove anything by going.
|
| Most Instagrammers and such need to accept that unless they are
| personally trekking through uninhabited land nothing they do will
| be unique and it's ok.
| twelve40 wrote:
| I agree, that read like pointless bitching with the author
| being above the plebs they run into when traveling. Maybe they
| simply need to get off Instagram and take a breath once in a
| while. I don't use it, and I go to Florence not because someone
| made some dumbass selfies there, but because I love history.
| Three months ago, they have a system where you get a time slot
| in the museums, you book online and I ran into absolutely 0
| lines there. Yes, a lot of tourists, but so what?? It is a
| beautiful place and it will always be popular.
| jVinc wrote:
| What a worth of space piece. It basically just boils down to the
| author being annoyed that other people visit popular sites too.
|
| If you don't like other tourists, don't travel to tourist
| destinations. It's that simple. You don't travel to France and
| get annoyed that there are french people, well guess what,
| tourist destinations have tourists, that's a given, and it's a
| given everywhere, and it has nothing to do with instagram,
| Facebook or "this generation" it's just basic dumb fact.
| hannofcart wrote:
| The article is best summarized by that famous Yogi Berra quote:
| "No one goes there anymore. It's too crowded."
|
| Except in the article the author is saying: "No one ought to go
| there..."
| tomcam wrote:
| The writing felt slack and unfocused to me. Didn't really
| understand the thesis, if present. Possibly this?
|
| > The problem of travel at this particular moment is not too many
| people traveling in general, it is too many people wanting to
| experience the exact same thing because they all went to the same
| websites and read the same reviews
|
| So it's not rewarding to go to popular sites maybe? Or that they
| are crowded? Something about being middle class is insufficient
| to enjoy these places? But why not exactly?
| _qua wrote:
| I agree. It felt like a few disconnected paragraphs about
| spending too much money on a vacation the writer didn't enjoy?
| jaclaz wrote:
| I think that the thesis is more like "be warned that what you
| will find when going to a place you have seen promoted on
| Instagram won't likely be the same thing, because everyone else
| had your same idea and that place has changed in the meantime".
|
| A number or places are promoted because they are (one way or
| the other) "exclusive", but if they are open to the public and
| everyone goes there, the exclusivity soon ends.
|
| Small places like Positano did actually change due to the mass
| of people visiting them, on a larger scale Venice and Florence
| share a similar "shift".
|
| To give you a small example for Florence, once there were a
| number of small "trattorie" (cheap restaurants) where locals
| would go, eating simple, local dishes.
|
| For many years foreigners (travelers, not tourists) found these
| places (by mere chance), ate there, among the locals, and came
| home telling how pleasant was that experience to their friends,
| let's say 50 people, of these, maybe 5 (10%) would go in the
| next 5 years to Florence and eat there, so, each "positive
| review" brought in 1 or 2 customers the next year (replacing
| the one of the year before), the situation was stable.
|
| Now one "influencer" goes there and his/her experience is read
| by 100,000 people, of these a much smaller percentage (1%) 1000
| people next year go to that place.
|
| It is a good thing (more work) for the restaurant, but -
| besides the queue outside - after the cook has been asked
| multiple times for "spaghetti bolognese" and the manager
| understands that the foreign customers are willing to pay 10
| Euro for them (instead of the 5 Euro a first course was priced
| before), the restaurant will change menu and raise prices, no
| locals would go there anymore, additionally since very few
| people among the new mass of customers can actually appreciate
| the food, quality will lower.
|
| Soon after, the guy next door will understand that there are
| thousands of people looking for food (and that there is no need
| for the food to be good) and opens a new restaurant.
|
| In a few years "trattorie" disappear, replaced by "tourist
| restaurants", where thousands of people go expecting to have
| the same experience the original "influencer" reported.
|
| And - here is the interesting psychological aspect - either
| because they spent a lot of time and money to organize the trip
| or because they have no way (lack of culture/experience/taste)
| to appreciate the differences most people won't report honestly
| that their (unlike the original) experience was a shitty one
| and will as well publish photos of the place and tell everyone
| how nice it was, perpetuating the myth.
| petre wrote:
| We usually ask at the reception where should we go eat out.
| It works out great most of the time. It worked fine in
| Florence. When we picked a restaurant ourselves we got out of
| the tourist area and ate at a underwhelmingly looking
| grocery/restaurant where university professors ate out. If
| the staff only speaks Italian, you're probably at the right
| place. The food was good and they had a huge selection of
| wines. Of course, we never put those places on Instagram. In
| Florence one can still be able to find places like that. But
| if you go to places like Positano or Taormina, then almost
| every restaurant is the tourist type and even the locals have
| no choice but to eat there.
| jaclaz wrote:
| Yep, there are still a few good ones, but don't tell anyone
| ;).
|
| Taormina or Positano are so small that the "new wave" of
| tourist places have already (and since a few years)
| "killed" practically all the places for normal people[1],
| in Florence you can clearly see the trend, but there are
| still enough "old" places, though it won't probably last
| for long.
|
| [1] though (if you have the means to go only a few
| kilometers away) in the surroundings of Taormina or
| Positano there are still many good traditional restaurants
| [deleted]
| tomcam wrote:
| Thank you. Your writeup is clear and illuminating. If that's
| what TFA intended I'm not sure it succeeded.
| 22c wrote:
| I liked the article, I know people who plan travel the same way
| as described in the article and it makes travel sound like a
| chore. I also feel like you're not doing the culture justice if
| you're doing this kind of "drive-by tourism".
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