does social media mean young people do more/travel more than in the past?

[yokuscrocus]

My question relates to 16 to say mid 20 year olds from middle class /professional backgrounds (well off comparatively but not ultra wealthy).

Do people travel more to show off on social media? Is travel that much cheaper than 20 - 30 years ago? Or are people stretching themselves because of social media pressure>

I was randomly looking at the social media of the daughter of colleague - having got their via my colleagues site.

She is probably about 23, still a student, and her social media was chock full of photos of her looking beautiful in some extraordinary locations. I mean almost anywhere you could think of USA, Australia, Carribean, most European cities, skiiing, vineyards in France, obscure South American countries, African safaris.

I became interested in this and looked at other pages of her friends and then for children of other people I knew.

It was all very much the same - a vast array of photos from all over the world. Seriously extensive travel. One or two were parent trips but most of it was with friends.

When I was at university, by the same age, most people may have travelled with their parents on holiday, done a bit of Europe and maybe one or two long haul destinations either as gap year travel or with parents. No one I knew at all had done so much travel so extensively especially so much long haul travel to exotic locations.

Obviously I think I'm a bit jealous * all these young people have done so much but it also made me a bit sad. I quite liked the fact that I'd always wanted to visit X place and then saved up and made a plan to go there. I was in my 30s before I went to Africa on safari for example as I couldn't have afforded it before. It kind of made it more special. I mean if you've been almost everywhere by the time you are 25 what travel is there left to look forward to.

So what's different? Is it all propelled by a social media desire to post interesting content from far flung locations? How do they afford it?

*a lot jealous

When I was at university I travelled to the Caribbean, USA, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain Netherlands and Belgium. All trips organised with other students for various reasons. I worked to pay for it.

@PuttingDownRoots - yes that was my sort of experience a couple of long hauls and healthy smattering of Europe.

This is more extensive - it's like everywhere - all continents, Australasia, lots of different Carribean locations, several different S American countries, extensive Europe.

and it seems impressionistically that almost everyone has done this much travel amongst that age and demographic. It's not exceptional. All the social media feeds are full of this breadth and width of travel - and it all looks fairly luxury travel too - smart pools/restaurants/beach clubs and so forth in the background. Not budget down the youth hostel!

These are not children of Bill Gates but just normal middle class kids - parents are corporate/lawyers/doctors that type of thing.

has anyone else noticed this?

DH travelled for close to 2 years after graduating with his UG degree, he had a funded PhD lined up for his return this started in 1990, this was before I knew him. He travelled to about 100 countries. He is the only person I know who has travelled to both Easter Island and The Cook Islands. He has photos, tickets and various bits and bobs all in albums. He has now visited about 140 countries in total due to work and holidays with me. We are buying a mobile home and travelling when he retires in a couple of years, he still hasn’t done a couple of countries in Europe.

A woman friend of mine also travelled round China in about 1996 by herself. They were both from quite wealthy families. He did work in Australia and America for a couple of months each time to make some extra money. I flew to America by myself but met up with friends when there and then took an internal flight to meet up with relatives I had never met, when I was about 20, similar sort of years nothing fancy but it was in 1987.

I haven’t noticed because I do not do instagram or other SM platforms to look at all the navel gazing shite that seems to proliferate aforementioned SM.

So I don’t post anything on social media but I do look at others’ pages and I would say I am influenced by seeing pictures of others’ travels. In some ways it’s a positive thing as it make travel seem more accessible but there is also definitely an element of trying to keep up. That’s why I don’t like to post really so that I hopefully mentally don’t enter that game/competition. I think it generally has increased one man-up ship though in regards to lots of things like interior design, weddings, hens, baby showers etc

Do people travel more to show off on social media?

No. But I do think social media plays a part in inspiring people to want to travel.

The young people I know can’t really afford to. I travelled loads in my uni years though, the Ryanair heyday.

It's the cheapness

I don’t know anyone who travels to post about it on social, no.

I do think social media has probably shown people that you can do it cheaper than you thought, and the internet has no doubt made it much easier to find bargains…

But also, the friends of someone who extensively travels are likely to extensively travel themselves. And if you’ve spent time on someone who travels profile, the algorithm will serve you more of that, too. There are definitely still a lot of people in that age bracket who haven’t/don’t want to travel.

I think you might move in more elevated circles than you think. Round here the kids go to Europe but nothing stellar.

At uni I definitely had friends who were keen on travel and did budget sta (student travel association) holidays to far flung places. Once we were in our 20s the same people expanded their travel experience and some less travel minded went on holidays but nothing intrepid.

If they are going to luxury upmarket places they must be well off.

I think you might move in more elevated circles than you think. Round here the kids go to Europe but nothing stellar.

@ZenNudist This was sort of my point. I mean (maybe I'm wrong) but I regarded my upbringing and (parental) financial status as a teenager/student as on the same level as these children of colleagues.

Yet the extent and breadth of the travel I am seeing on these social media accounts far exceeds anything I could have attained at that age.

Maybe my assessment that my friends and I (Back then) and these young people (now) are from similar backgroudns/similar social and financial level is just wrong -and they are comparatively from wealthier backgrounds.

It just blew my mind that SO many of these teenagers and early 20s year olds had been to so many places and had so much experience of varied long haul travel as well as Europe.