"Savor the Trip, Don't Tweet it" by Christopher Elliot is about people taking vacations and getting sucked into their phones, computers...etc. He wrote this article because he thinks(and I agree) that too many people are taking vacations but not experiencing them truly because they are caught up with technology. People are more concerned with what their peers will think about their picture/video/status updates, than actually traveling. I think he wants the readers to think about how technology affects vacations.
I've always wanted to travel the world and my top destination is Australia/New Zealand because I've always wanted to experience their culture, see all of the wild life, and possibly visit the indigenious population. The role technology will have in my travel will only be to document everything I do so that I can look back in 30 years or so and remember how great the trip was (will be).
When I read the article, i was a bit suprised on how much people actually do the things he talks about. Some of the things he found were almost shocking! When he says that "one in ten men think they shouldn't have to switch off their mobile devices during weddings" I wanted to scream! Its ridiculous how much people rely on technology. The article shed some light on this and made me think about how much I use. I use my phone to make plans and talk to my dad(who lives in Rhode Island) and I use my computer to check my email/grades/school email. I have a facebook but I don't really go on it ALL the time. When I travel, my phone and computer stay off and the only piece of technology I carry is my camera. I love taking pictures of things because I know that when I'm older, I can look back at them and see how much fun I had on that trip. In the article, Elliot says that people only document things so that other people can see them. When I take pictures, I might put a few up on FB but never all of them (too many pics). I always go back and look at my pictures and delete the random ones I take (I can get alittle camera happy sometimes).
I think we should definatly set technology boundaries as a class. We should just ban cell phones all together. Cell phones are easy access to the internet so people can update their statuses one minute saying "in Australia" and then the next minute change it to "still in Australia". Cell phones just lead to pointless facebook visits. The only computer access we should get is for email/skyping our parents or for the project. We don't need to check up on the latest gossip on FB while in AU/NZ. When we travel, I kind of want to be, almost cut off from Grayslake. The trip will be more memoriable if we aren't thinking about anything from back home. When it comes to cameras, I think we should always be allowed a camera. I want to be able to document everything when we are down there. When I say everything, I don't literally mean EVERYTHING!! I'm not gonna take pictures 24/7 but when we visit somewhere I definatly want to be able to remember it because I'm probably not going to be able to go back.
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