Why travellers need to ditch social media

[GasoLane]

Originally Posted by chevypower

Kind of. A little bit of subjectivity is good, but there are some technicalities to consider, such as good light/metering, DOF, and composition. You can't show up at a photography competition with an underexposed, blurry picture, with poor composition, and tell the judges that there is no absolute better or worse picture, it's all subjective. It's just not going to work.

I thinking what Jastel was thinking of was Mum and Aunty Flo looking at the phone pics and saying "that's nice dear" rather than the local Photo club picking it to pieces

Anyway, if your going to take pics with your phone and post them on social media (including on here using Photobucket) don't expect great colour reproduction or detail.

[blueoval]

Great thread.

I must admit, I am an Instagramaholic. But I dont have FB anymore. Deleted it 6yrs ago and better off for it. Found I wasted hours and hours looking at others profiles, arguing with other people and getting frustrated with cryptic status updates.

I found Instagram was a bit of a way to see others pictures yet not read all the BS that goes on in peoples lives. It has also got me into photography of sorts. Im looking at buying some entry level equipment and having a play at capturing some decent photos.

Yes, I admit I am a foodie and do take pictures of food, but I have since wound back those pictures a lot since being on a specific diet. (dont ask)

I think this is a good idea though to forget social media while on holiday. Still take pictures of course, but dont be so anxious to post them up as soon as you take them. Just enjoy the area you are in and leave the posting of pics till you get home or at least till you are in the airport to leave.

[Lotte]

Originally Posted by xxx000

^^The article was about travellers using social media

People spending probably significant amounts of money going to nice places in the world but then becoming absorbed in electronic devices and telling 'friends' everything they are doing rather than really enjoying the scenery, the moment and the company.

And? It's their holiday. Who are you to tell them how to enjoy it?
Some people think it's crazy I take books to read when I travel, because I should be doing x,y,z.
It's my holiday I'll bloody read, blog, take photos, update my status, pick my nose, and eat what I Damn want.

[xxx000]

Originally Posted by Lotte

And? It's their holiday. Who are you to tell them how to enjoy it?
Some people think it's crazy I take books to read when I travel, because I should be doing x,y,z.
It's my holiday I'll bloody read, blog, take photos, update my status, pick my nose, and eat what I Damn want.

The article was commenting on a phenomenon re social media and I agreed with it.

Forums are about comments and opinions, my intention wasn't for you to get upset which you clearly have.

It's a pretty simple concept that we're talking about:
Do you walk around overseas at famous/beautiful locations reading those books you mention or instead looking at and enjoying where you are?

To me it's a bit like an alcoholic going overseas and sitting in the same pub getting ****ed all day every day. Why go in the first place? Why not stay home and spare others the annoyance of seeing you?

[Lotte]

The article is pretty explicit in telling people how to holiday, a lot of comments here are suggesting their way is better.

It's fine to have an opinion on how you do things.
It's different when you start inferring or downright telling people how they should operate and how your method is better.
I may have misread your comment as that's what you were saying, and for that I apologise.

This is the issue I have. And no, I'm not upset. I'm just over this whole "social media is ruining x,y,z" phenomenon. There is a certain level of arrogance in saying people aren't holidaying according to *my* ideals, and there seems to be a lot of that happening in this thread.

[DBourne]

Also, once a holiday is done, it doesn't take long for memories to fade, the pictures are what remains, and reminds you of memories.

Anyway, everyone will have their opinion of it I guess. Just seems like a funny thing to get worked up about, people taking photos on holidays.. wow..

[Lotte]

And to answer your question, I do a range of things. I find beautiful places to read, I take photos and shock horror I upload them to Facebook, sometimes later on, sometimes then and there.
I'm clearly not enjoying my holiday at all

[blueoval]

My mrs hates it when I post stuff on Insta while on holiday especially when its just me and her somewhere. She believes that it's distracting, and is anti social to her as if her company is not good enough. I do not disagree with her sentiments, I know I have to work on just leaving the phone alone while having a meal and the like. But for those addicted like me who are interested in what others are doing, or checking your 'like' count, it's a tough habit to break.

[xxx000]

generally nothing wrong with taking photos, most of us do.

Like another poster I find it a bit laughable/annoying when there's a wall of I Pads held up

the discussion is more around the appropriate 'when' and 'how' we share the photos and memories with others

[blueoval]

Do you mean like etiquette? If so, then yes I believe there is an etiquette of when a photo should be taken, but that is highly debatable and usually met with a lot of opposition.

I remember a restaurant who would give discount, or give a free drink to patrons who surrendered their phone upon entering their premises while eating there. Probably in an attempt to help families/friends converse with each other instead of burying their head in their phones?

[Lotte]

And that's up to you ultimately.
There is no right or wrong way, and people are implying there is.

[blueoval]

Originally Posted by Lotte

And that's up to you ultimately.
There is no right or wrong way, and people are implying there is.

I agree it's a personal choice. It is something that shouldn't be imposed on anyone. I guess the point Im seeing from your side is that if that person sees no problem with it, who are we to push our moral agenda onto them?

[Lotte]

That is exactly my point.
And I mean look, you can always ask people to move their ipad so those of us with actual cameras can get some shots in.
But then, I don't do tours very much and organise my own sight seeing. If I actually do any.

[Bucknaked]

I have a netbook I take with me when I travel. I use it to download photos from the day and to have a back up of my photos in case my memory cards get erased. We also use the netbook to look at the photos. when done, the netbook goes back into the room safe until the next lot of photos are ready. I also keep electronic copies of the itinerary and documents as a backup. My take on holidays and social media is that as I just paid for a holiday, why should I then spend my time sharing details of the holiday while on holiday for other peoples benefit. Disconnect. Enjoy the holiday. Who cares what everyone else is doing.

[Madaya]

The AFF is my pretty much my only Social Media, but I view it as a great resource as to maintaining my Ford, sharing ideas and swapping stories.
Ultimately you get to make good, real friends. You find that you not only sharing auto information, but seriously important issues like health, relationships, situations.
I highlight real friends.
About 5 years ago, on the prompting of my ex wife, I ventured onto FaceBook. Found it boring as bat droppings. FB prompts you make 'friends' with dozens of people I don't or no longer know. People from school I hardly spoke to back then, and their circle of friends I've never met. I was circumspect as to who I would list as a friend.

One night, my ex, fully immersed in her FB asked me, "how many friends do you have on FB"?
"Err, about eleven".
She raises her nose in the air and says "I've got 284. What does that say about you"!

The word friend has lost some of its meaning because of social media.

Oh, and I mentioned I was happy being with Noptus while doing the big drive. Just me, the road, the big scenery and happy folk willing to have a chat here and there.
Cheers,
Madaya

[Jastel]

Originally Posted by Lotte

That is exactly my point.
And I mean look, you can always ask people to move their ipad so those of us with actual cameras can get some shots in.
But then, I don't do tours very much and organise my own sight seeing. If I actually do any.

Yeah they will just move them out of the way....I wish...

I agree it's your holiday and you can do what you like...up until it affects other people to much.

Laying across paths, tripods, climbing fences etc for height, ipads and stick cams, taking pix when asked not to all inconvenience other people.

In Australia we are pretty lucky space wise...go to see the Louvre, The Vatican or Times Square and you will see what I mean about bad behaviour by photographers interfering with others.

I like to get pix as much as the next guy but sometimes its easier to go online and "borrow" someone else's for your album.

[zilo]

Social media is for people who really haven't got any real friends,
they just pretend they have.

So shy and introverted looking as they walk down the street playing with their fones looking sooooo self conscious unable to engage with the world.

I used to have one of those deal-x-treme phone jammers and the panic on their faces when their fones stopped working in a restaurant was hilarious.

The little security blanket / electronic crutch was broken...LOL

[Xauterus]

Originally Posted by Lotte

That is exactly my point.
And I mean look, you can always ask people to move their ipad so those of us with actual cameras can get some shots in.
But then, I don't do tours very much and organise my own sight seeing. If I actually do any.

What do you mean by actual cameras? The devices take photos. Are you just being a snob because you are carrying an "actual" camera?

[Lotte]

Originally Posted by Jastel

Yeah they will just move them out of the way....I wish...

I agree it's your holiday and you can do what you like...up until it affects other people to much.

Laying across paths, tripods, climbing fences etc for height, ipads and stick cams, taking pix when asked not to all inconvenience other people.

In Australia we are pretty lucky space wise...go to see the Louvre, The Vatican or Times Square and you will see what I mean about bad behaviour by photographers interfering with others.

I like to get pix as much as the next guy but sometimes its easier to go online and "borrow" someone else's for your album.

The article itself is about people using social media to upload and update during their holiday

But to be honest with you, I've never had a problem with asking another person taking photos to move so I can take mine.
I do have massive problems with people walking in front of me while I'm taking a shot though.

Originally Posted by zilo

Social media is for people who really haven't got any real friends,
they just pretend they have.

So shy and introverted looking as they walk down the street playing with their fones looking sooooo self conscious unable to engage with the world.

I used to have one of those deal-x-treme phone jammers and the panic on their faces when their fones stopped working in a restaurant was hilarious.

The little security blanket / electronic crutch was broken...LOL

That's a bit judgemental....

Originally Posted by Xauterus

What do you mean by actual cameras? The devices take photos. Are you just being a snob because you are carrying an "actual" camera?

Technically an ipad isn't a camera as it's primary function is not to take photos (this is from an engineering /design point of view), a camera is a camera however.
That aside, your sarcasm filter needs tweaking.

[NAK302]

stupid thread award.

[chevypower]

Yes it's always up to you. If you want to be on social media throughout your vacation, that doesn't mean people can't make recommendations against it. If you go out on a date with a girl, it's up to you if you want to be texting and/or constantly on social media instead of giving attention to your date. If you want to be at a tourist destination and constantly on social media instead of actually looking around and being engaged in what you paid good money to do, that is also up to you.

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by zilo

Social media is for people who really haven't got any real friends,
they just pretend they have.

So shy and introverted looking as they walk down the street playing with their fones looking sooooo self conscious unable to engage with the world.

I used to have one of those deal-x-treme phone jammers and the panic on their faces when their fones stopped working in a restaurant was hilarious.

The little security blanket / electronic crutch was broken...LOL

You do know forums is part of social media!
So you like to communicate with your pretend friends here on this forum, might pay for you to give us up & associate with real friends in the real world.

[zilo]

Originally Posted by trublu

You do know forums is part of social media!
So you like to communicate with your pretend friends here on this forum, might pay for you to give us up & associate with real friends in the real world.

Was wondering how long it would take a troll to surface.



Congrats, you win...

[Itsme]

Originally Posted by zilo

Was wondering how long it would take a troll to surface.



Congrats, you win...

Takes a troll to know a troll.......
Cheers.

[Auslandau]

Wouldn't think that was trolling ..... trublu just stating the obvious! Someone using social media to explain how those who use social media haven't got any real friends? Am sorry you are friendless. I have 111,483 friends at the moment ..... and a few more on FB

Everyone can holiday as they please and use social media as they want. Read, take photos, share with friends back home or keep things to themselves. My Mrs writes an absolute novel when we go OS. Every night, sits up in a motel room and writes in the journal. Keeps all the butts from entrance fees, coupons ... what ever it is. Of course I happy for her to do that ...... that is part of the experience

One thing I do not understand on holidays are those who go to Macca's in somewhere like China which has the best Chinese food in the world! Funny about that. But I know people who do ...... but then thats their prerogative

[cs123]

Originally Posted by Auslandau

One thing I do not understand on holidays are those who go to Macca's in somewhere like China which has the best Chinese food in the world! Funny about that. But I know people who do ...... but then thats their prerogative

I've done this. Do not recommend...... Meat patty, sliced into strips, dunked in oyster sauce and served with steamed rice. It was the oriental beef value meal. Awful....

[Auslandau]

LOL ...... Nearly had Macca;s once in China just for laughs but just couldn't do it. Not when the food is just so good and cheap over there.

[Feathers]

Originally Posted by Auslandau

One thing I do not understand on holidays are those who go to Macca's in somewhere like China which has the best Chinese food in the world! Funny about that. But I know people who do ...... but then thats their prerogative

My Grandmother used to do that. Her reasoning was that you knew what you were getting, because they had to be made to a certain standard (as low as some would believe that is). I can see her point, but in reality it was because she was the tightest person I knew.
Sure, she'd been around the world 3 times, but some of the things she did just to save a few dollars is ridiculous.

She never took photos at popular tourist locations. After she died and I was going through her things, I found her passports and other travel documents.

She bought postcards of famous landmarks, saying that she'd never be able to take photos as nice as the professionals, and all her photos were of the car park, or the coach they were on, or some other random thing, which made no sense to us. Rarely were there photos of her at these places. As a result I threw most of them out.

I guess posting them to Facebook or similar means you can easily caption them, your family and friends can see things that were important to you, and they're not taking up space anywhere, so when you die your family don't toss the lot out because they have no real value to anyone else.

[SSD-85]

Originally Posted by zilo

Social media is for people who really haven't got any real friends,
they just pretend they have.

So shy and introverted looking as they walk down the street playing with their fones looking sooooo self conscious unable to engage with the world.

I used to have one of those deal-x-treme phone jammers and the panic on their faces when their fones stopped working in a restaurant was hilarious.

The little security blanket / electronic crutch was broken...LOL

Did you feel like a big tuff brute man doing it?

I am one of those so-called shy, introverted self-conscious people with NO friends & AFF is about as social media orientated as I get.

But its okay, you keep entertaining yourself at the expense of people you know nothing about.

[Lotte]

Originally Posted by zilo

Was wondering how long it would take a troll to surface.



Congrats, you win...

He's not the troll here.....