So bored of 'we left our life in the UK' influencers

Cyprus 😊

Where are you, out of interest?

A good friend of mine is part of the Digital Nomad community and she is so honest about it. She says it is full of people posting #LivingMyBestLife posing, smiling posts in front of azure seas, while swearing about the shitty wifi, the insects, the local laws, language barriers, the total inability to form close relationships etc etc. it's different, not better. She's tired of it.

Whilst I understand your point regarding 'influencers', I'm British and have lived abroad for a long time. One of my sons was born abroad and my youngest 2 have been educated in the local state school system. They're both fluent in the local language. I would never want to move back to the UK, and can't imagine why I would need to. There are of course pros and cons, the health service here far surpasses the NHS but salaries are considerably lower. It's my home now though ☺️

@Prenoden. Yep my friends are back 2 years ago from SA after 12 years ( she is South African) after chatting about it I can see the advantages were somewhat limited and she was honest - a big house, help at home, cheap wine and sun - that was it really - on the downside were constant power outages, rarely going out in an evening, riots from some very threatening locals literally at end of road, husband having to do barricading duties, needing guns and multiple dogs and rarely going on holiday apart from safaris, ended up paying for schools and healthcare which they hadn’t really fully factored in and the fact no one wanted to go out to see them because it’s not exactly top of most people’s lists - the guy ended up working in a stressful quite physical job when the original idea had been for him to stop work - couldn’t afford it when it became clear private schools and health were very much needed

My feed is full of Americans who love the UK and are already here, or want too move here. All of DD's Masters student friends from the US and Europe are staying here, want to work and live here. I have a lot of European friends, they are not moving back even though they are still citizens if their country.

I suppose it depends what you see, who you know.

@MathiasBroucektotally agree with you

I find that last paragraph very intriguing. Almost like they are trying to create or even be the news, rather than reporting factually and perhaps offering insight.

Can you not just flick past the influencers you don’t want to see?

If your eyeball time is a second or less your algorithm will start to change because the social media platforms want you glued as long as possible, they make a lot of money from your time and data.

I remember reading a newspaper column written by someone who by someone who had moved to rural France. He said that many people find the language challenging and the life lonely and in the end quite a high percentage moved back. I think some of the problem was the loss of the support network coupled with what could be a very different culture.
People I know who have migrated to France and to the best of my knowledge, intend staying there, are part of a massive expat/migrant community who meet frequently for social events.

You lost me at calling everyone who voted Brexit "far right." That is just lazy stereotyping, plenty of ordinary people voted Leave for reasons that had nothing to do with politics at the extremes.

Also, you admit you have EU citizenship and could move tomorrow if you wanted, but then say you will not because the economies "aren’t great." That is exactly the contradiction you criticise in the influencers, holding up the UK as some sort of grey, declining place but then admitting you prefer the stability here.

Brexit was not perfect, but to pretend all its supporters were extremists while you sit comfortably in the UK with the option to live abroad does not really square with the picture you are painting.

Hmm it depends

I live abroad and I have to say there’s no way in the world I would move back to where I’m originally from in the North west/Cheshire. It was a lovely area and I have mainly fantastic memories of living there from my childhood to my early 20’s, when I left, travelled the world and settled abroad.
Yes it’s hot where I am at the moment, but currently lay down indoors in a cool house, fan on me. We went for a swim in the pool early on, ate breakfast outside. Later when cooler we’ll take a picnic to the beach and swim in the sea at sunset.
Dd currently has a friend over from our neighbourhood and they’re playing (talking together in the language here) we’ve had bbq fish and toasted marshmallows for lunch.
We wouldn’t have anything like this life from where i’m from and it would be criminal to move Dd there now after the life she has here, I really don’t think any of us would cope with the change in lifestyle now. I remember feeling trapped and depressed in the uk

However, having said all this, I think I possibly do want to move back in the next couple of years to where my family now lives, by the beach, similar lifestyle but winters not as nice as where we are, but i’m sure I’ll adapt, just need to get Dh on board (doesn’t want to return to the uk)

Social media is awash with insecure people trying to justify their life choices by glamorising them.

Similar to you @PrenodenI am happy in the UK. But I don’t feel the need to bleat about it on social media and put other people’s choices down.

The latest one I saw was some couple with 3 kids who have moved into a “1 bed apartment”. For some reason.

Massively glamorising it, video of cute little kids beds in the corner, softplay set up at other end of the room, happy kids running around, with an overlaid caption about moving into a 1 bed flat so that they can “free up money for experiences” blah blah blah.

I mean, you do do. If that’s what they can afford, that’s fine. Nobodies going to judge them for being in financial difficulty.

But the dressing it up as something it’s not and making it into a whole “thing” is just something I’m so bored of.

Give them a break, they are trying to earn a living. My content fills up with US citixens who have moved to Mexico and, frankly, they are deadly boring

Give them a break, they are trying to earn a living. My content fills up with US citixens who have moved to Mexico and, frankly, they are deadly boring

Well, I live in Spain and it has his pros and cons as does the UK. At least this country is geared up for the heat though - the UK has no idea of how to cope with hot weather. I won’t be rushing back to England for the NHS either when I get old.

my feed seems to be full of influencers trying to peddle dubious skincare, makeup and crap clothes so I think I’d prefer yours. If an influencer is recommending something, I am steering well clear of it!

EU citizenship isn’t a thing, you either have or are eligible for citizenship of an EU member state. How often do you read on here about a poster who thinks the UK is failing and they want to move to the monolith they refer to as Europe. Every country has it’s positive and negative points.

I have four years to decide if I will apply for citizenship of the EU member state I have residency permit for.

I love our country even though it's far from perfect & I would never move somewhere 'hot' as I find summer's unbearably hot here, never mind Spain etc. In my social circle I have a friend from South Africa that came to live in the UK a few years ago who regularly tells me how much better life is here in the UK, a friend who lives in UAE who is 'definitely coming back to the UK in the next few years' & a friend who made a go of life in Australia & ended up back home in less than a year. It is not all it's cracked up to be.

Why not change your preferences? If you set your preferences to say you aren't interested and don't want to see that type of content it should really decrease the amount in your feed.

We have a house in a sunny country as well as here in the UK. Will I move there, absolutely not. More plus’s here than cons.

And what some of them do to earn money no thanks 🤮

Compeltely agree!! On my social media, its Australia presented as the only place worth living. They paint such a stereotypical, bleak picture of the UK but a couple have ended up moving back! I live in a beautiful part of the UK so have no envy over scenery but for me it rotally comes down to home is where you're family are. Nothing could convince me to move far from Sunday lunches at my parents, kids being picked up from school by grandparents or just totally random, quiet, Tuesday teas with their cousins. I truly believe these are the things that count. (But also made easier by the lovely, sunny weather we have had this year!).

I just hate how they always have to compare by making the UK look dire. Great. You're happy you have moced, I am pleased for you. But don't dump all over where you came from!

Hear hear!!!!

I'm mixed nationality too, and it's frustrating to see UK celebs "giving it all up" to just go and find a McDonalds elsewhere. We have to appreciate what there is abroad but also be extremely grateful for what we have here in the UK.

I think it’s partly your algorithms, partly a cultural oddity. I’m Irish, there’s a long tradition of economic migration and a huge diaspora, but even when I left Ireland during a stinking recession that saw mass unemployment (pretty much everyone I know who graduated when I did left for work), no one bored on about leaving because Ireland was shit. We left for economic opportunities, absolutely, but didn’t need to convince ourselves that our home country was a dreadful place. You can love where you’re from and still choose to go and live somewhere else, out of choice or economic necessity. It seems to be a British cultural quirk that a lot of emigrants seem to need to convince themselves that wherever they’ve chosen to emigrate to is objectively ‘better’ and the UK is shit.

As with all influencers, they only show the top 1% of the life they are leading. It’s all smoke and mirrors