# Anyone else despise the modern obsession with 'travel?' **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 1, 2019, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093 "2019-10-01T11:16:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![pool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pool/32/4152_2.png) [@pool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pool)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/21 "2019-10-01T13:57:03Z")
I wouldn’t say I despise it, if anything I’m probably envious of those who can afford to travel, I wish I had the money to do so. That being said I despise social media and I wouldn’t feel the need to display my travel photos all over the internet, I’d live in the moment and enjoy the experience and any photos I took would be for my own private enjoyment. ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/22 "2019-10-01T13:58:09Z")
> [@SanVito](#): > > Isn’t this just a case of different strokes? I can’t stand gaming, have no interest in classic cars, and have rejected my father’s attempts to embed my passions in golf. I’ll take travel thank you. yes, of course. but unlike traveling, there probably isn’t a small cadre of snobs who look down their noses at you because you don’t game, like classic cars, or play golf the way there are people who think traveling is something one “must” do. > [@](#): > > I’ll admit that travel is probably more common here than in the US - in the UK, if you want to guarantee a week by a pool, it’s safer, and probably cheaper, to opt for Spain or Greece over a B&B on the south coast. There’s practically no one I know who doesn’t travel for leisure at some point in the year. consider the difference in scale, though. as the crow flies, the distance you travel to get to Spain will get me from where I live to Kansas. If you add on the additional distance it takes you to get to Greece, it’ll still only get me to the other side of Kansas. The nearest other country I can reach w/o a long-ish flight is Canada, and (no offense to Canadians) it’s so culturally similar to the US I might as well still be in the US. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 2:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/23 "2019-10-01T14:07:01Z")
I don’t think I understand. Why do you care what other people do for fun? 😕 (Also, I can’t really speak to the habits and travel style of young women on Seeking Arrangements, but I did plenty of traveling when I was a twentysomething grad student making $18,000 a year, and I did it without going into debt. It’s certainly _possible_ that these people are being financially irresponsible, but I wouldn’t assume it.) ---
**Author:** ![WOOKINPANUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wookinpanub/32/132_2.png) [@WOOKINPANUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WOOKINPANUB)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/24 "2019-10-01T14:16:46Z")
> [@jz78817](#): > > yes, of course. but unlike traveling, there probably isn’t a small cadre of snobs who look down their noses at you because you don’t game, like classic cars, or play golf the way there are people who think traveling is something one “must” do. > > consider the difference in scale, though. as the crow flies, the distance you travel to get to Spain will get me from where I live to Kansas. If you add on the additional distance it takes you to get to Greece, it’ll still only get me to the other side of Kansas. The nearest other country I can reach w/o a long-ish flight is Canada, and (no offense to Canadians) it’s so culturally similar to the US I might as well still be in the US. Totally agree with your second point. My Brit friends have mocked me (Americans in general, actually)about my lack of travel experience because they naturally grew up doing it(travelling, not mocking me :p) They seem to forget how much bigger of an expense it is just to get from one side of this country to the other, never mind across an ocean. As a teenager, travel for me was places like Las Vegas or Palm Springs or San Diego. I reckon there are many countries as close to each other as those places were to me and it’s nothing to take weekend trips, but in the US it’s a whole different situation. ---
**Author:** ![kitap](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/b9e5f3/32.png) [@kitap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kitap)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 2:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/25 "2019-10-01T14:33:26Z")
Yep; drive 8 hours North from Como, Italy and you can reach Ramstein AFB in Germany. Drive 8 hours North from Tucson, Arizona and you’re at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon, and still in Arizona. ---
**Author:** ![Pantastic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3bc359/32.png) [@Pantastic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pantastic)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/26 "2019-10-01T14:40:09Z")
You do realize that the Seeking Arrangements site is built specifically for young, conventionally attractive women to find older, rich men who want to spend money on the women in exchange for sex and/or attention from the women? Because one way they might spend money is to send the young women on trips to expensive locales, and that seems the most obvious way that hot chicks on a site built for connecting hot chicks with rich dudes would be able to afford things beyond what their job would support. I’m not sure why you would go to a site specifically for young hot women to find sugar daddies, then wonder at how they could possibly afford the kind of stuff sugar daddies usually lavish on their ‘arrangements’. Or why the young women on the site seeking to sell their attention to rich old dudes in ‘arrangements’ seem rather shallow spiritually and engage in conspicuous consumption. You seem to have answered your own question just by pointing out the site where you made your observations. ---
**Author:** ![DCnDC](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dcndc/32/2842_2.png) [@DCnDC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DCnDC)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/27 "2019-10-01T14:44:37Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > I reckon there are many countries as close to each other as those places were to me and it’s nothing to take weekend trips, but in the US it’s a whole different situation. Long ago a friend of a friend visited from France. Their first night I asked them what they wanted to do tomorrow. \*“I want to see the Washington Monument.” \* We’re in DC, so no problem! _“…then I want to have a Philly cheesesteak, visit the Statue of Liberty,”_ That’s a trip, but doable in a day I suppose. _“…and see the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore. If there’s time, I want to go to that Rainbow Room place.”_ :smack: Okay, time for a geography lesson… ---
**Author:** ![jz78817](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jz78817/32/1028_2.png) [@jz78817](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jz78817)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/28 "2019-10-01T14:47:16Z")
> [@WOOKINPANUB](#): > > Totally agree with your second point. My Brit friends have mocked me (Americans in general, actually)about my lack of travel experience because they naturally grew up doing it(travelling, not mocking me :p) They seem to forget how much bigger of an expense it is just to get from one side of this country to the other, never mind across an ocean. As a teenager, travel for me was places like Las Vegas or Palm Springs or San Diego. I reckon there are many countries as close to each other as those places were to me and it’s nothing to take weekend trips, but in the US it’s a whole different situation. ISTR reading somewhere (on another message board, I think) a post where someone had to gently remind his guests/relatives coming to visit from Europe that driving from Florida to Texas was a wee bit more than a “day trip.” ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/29 "2019-10-01T14:48:13Z")
> [@Pantastic](#): > > You do realize that the Seeking Arrangements site is built specifically for young, conventionally attractive women to find older, rich men who want to spend money on the women in exchange for sex and/or attention from the women? Ah, that puts the OP in even better context. He’s not just poor and bitter, he’s also alone. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Machine\_Elf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@Machine\_Elf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Machine_Elf)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/30 "2019-10-01T15:01:15Z")
> [@Marcus\_Flavius](#): > > So I don’t ‘travel’ whatsoever. I have no interest, I’m pretty much a local guy. So naturally, I despise this obsession that modern people have with ‘traveling!’ Other peoples’ interests differ from yours, and you hate them for it. Why? > [@Marcus\_Flavius](#): > > Not too long ago, international travel was seen as a rare and exotic thing. Now the masses of common wage slaves are doing it. > > I think this is due partly to the extreme emptiness and spiritual vacuity of our times- so people seek out travel as a remedy, and partly due to the explosion of social media around the mid-late 2000s. I think it’s got more to do with the low price of air travel these days and the competition for tourist dollars that keeps accommodation costs down at tourist destinations. > [@Marcus\_Flavius](#): > > The good news is that, due to the coming era of resource and capital scarcity, mass international travel will be a thing of the past. Why do you see the end of mass international travel by other people as a good thing? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/31 "2019-10-01T15:06:14Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > I don’t think I understand. Why do you care what other people do for fun? 😕 > > (Also, I can’t really speak to the habits and travel style of young women on Seeking Arrangements, but I did plenty of traveling when I was a twentysomething grad student making $18,000 a year, and I did it without going into debt. It’s certainly _possible_ that these people are being financially irresponsible, but I wouldn’t assume it.) I’ve always traveled a bit, but, yeah, in the mid-90s, when I did the bulk of it, it was pretty darn cheap to do so. And, from looking at the crazy fares these European airlines offer within Europe, it’s even much more cheap to do so now. I went to the UK with $2000 or so in my pocket, made a couple more thousand working in Scotland, and managed to go from Scotland to Slovenia back to Wolverhampton, to Poland, to Budapest, down to Croatia, and back to the UK on under $5000 over a period of nine months. These are not just travel expenses. These are all my expenses, living and food, for that trip. Granted, my expenses were low: all the time I spent working in Scotland, I also got room and board; all my time in Slovenia and Croatia, same thing (I volunteered down there.) It can all be done on seriously little money if you want to do it. Anyhow, I don’t notice it as a new trend or anything. I’ve always known people to travel. I come from a working class background, but my parents took me back to Poland every three or four years to visit family; my friends similarly would take a trip back to whatever their home country they were from. When I lived in Budapest (late 90s/early 00s), I made $700/month, yet I managed to make an international flight every year back to the US, plus many intra-European rail trips. Every other month I would be out of the country, all on that $700/mo, while paying for normal rent, food, beer, etc. I love travel, and I miss it. I’ve only left the country once in the last five years; we do go to Arizona every year here from Chicago, and we usually take a number of short summer trips up into Wisconsin or Iowa, and an annual drive to Pennsylvania and New York. As much as I love home, I love breaks from home and experiencing and discovering new things and new people (well, for me it’s local food and drink, if I’m being honest). I can’t wait until the kids are slightly older so I can try some international trips with them. ---
**Author:** ![Snarky\_Kong](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a183cd/32.png) [@Snarky\_Kong](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Snarky_Kong)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 3:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/32 "2019-10-01T15:15:05Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Why do you see the end of mass international travel by other people as a good thing? Well, the OP certainly makes him seem like a bitter misanthrope, so probably because of that. ---
**Author:** ![Inigo\_Montoya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inigo_montoya/32/124_2.png) [@Inigo\_Montoya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inigo_Montoya)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/33 "2019-10-01T15:30:23Z")
I’ve seen a bit of Europe and some of the more rural bits around Manila. Cool enough, I guess, but not what I’d call worth the bother. I don’t really give a flying fart about people who are into globe trotting and seeing different cultures, and all that–be happy in your travels if that’s what stirs you, I just have no desire to experience it myself, in person. IME the world is packed with predators who think you’re only worth what you’ve got. I see no point in heaping strange languages, customs, and food onto the already unpleasant experience of dealing with other people. Just stay off my lawn and let me die in peace in my tiny little patch of the world. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/34 "2019-10-01T16:04:51Z")
> [@DCnDC](#): > > Long ago a friend of a friend visited from France. Their first night I asked them what they wanted to do tomorrow. > > \*“I want to see the Washington Monument.” \* > We’re in DC, so no problem! > > _“…then I want to have a Philly cheesesteak, visit the Statue of Liberty,”_ > That’s a trip, but doable in a day I suppose. > > _“…and see the Grand Canyon and Mount Rushmore. If there’s time, I want to go to that Rainbow Room place.”_ > :smack: Okay, time for a geography lesson… A lot of Europeans don’t really grasp just how big the United States is. I read of some German tourists who’d flown into Seattle and were planning on seeing that city, then driving down to Los Angeles and departing from there after seeing the sights in SoCal, with side trips to San Francisco and the Grand Canyon, all in four days. ---
**Author:** ![Marcus\_Flavius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@Marcus\_Flavius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marcus_Flavius)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/35 "2019-10-01T16:34:20Z")
> [@TriPolar](#): > > I"m with the OP. I hate to travel. I traveled a lot for business until I couldn’t stand it anymore. I’m fine staying home. I can see the world on TV and online. If it’s not within a 250 mile radius, I’m not interested in going there. ---
**Author:** ![Marcus\_Flavius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@Marcus\_Flavius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marcus_Flavius)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/36 "2019-10-01T16:38:47Z")
> [@Machine\_Elf](#): > > Other peoples’ interests differ from yours, and you hate them for it. Why? > > I think it’s got more to do with the low price of air travel these days and the competition for tourist dollars that keeps accommodation costs down at tourist destinations. > > Why do you see the end of mass international travel by other people as a good thing? I don’t “hate” anyone. I have an extreme dislike for consumerism (I don’t care what anyone says, international tourism is a shamefully consumerist activity) and what some people call ‘globalism.’ And yeah, air travel being more affordable than it’s ever been it’s definitely an aspect that I forgot to mention. ---
**Author:** ![Marcus\_Flavius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@Marcus\_Flavius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marcus_Flavius)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/37 "2019-10-01T16:47:00Z")
> [@Ravenman](#): > > So you go on a website seeking to connect women to older men who will subsidize their lifestyle, and you are shocked that you find young women living beyond their means? > > I… I… I just don’t think I have the words to measure the distance by which you are missing the entire, central, and crucial point. Whether they’re being subsidized or not, it seems like damn near every young Western woman aspires to this kind of lifestyle. Seeking Arrangements simply inspired me to make this thread, but from what I’ve observed personally, this demographic is the most travel! obsessed of any in the world. ---
**Author:** ![kenobi\_65](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kenobi_65/32/13178_2.png) [@kenobi\_65](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kenobi_65)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/38 "2019-10-01T16:50:51Z")
> [@Marcus\_Flavius](#): > > I don’t “hate” anyone. I have an extreme dislike for consumerism (I don’t care what anyone says, international tourism is a shamefully consumerist activity) and what some people call ‘globalism.’ To be fair, in the title of this thread, you use the word “despise,” which you then repeat in the first line of your original post. “Despise” is a pretty strong word, and synonymous with “hate” for a lot of people. [Dictionary.com](http://Dictionary.com) defines it as “to regard with contempt, distaste, disgust, or disdain; scorn; loathe,” while [Thesaurus.com](http://Thesaurus.com) lists “hate” as one of the closest-in synonyms to “despise.” So, thank you for clarifying, but note that your word choice set that tone among those who have responded. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/39 "2019-10-01T16:55:49Z")
“Without going out of my door I can know all things on earth” (even without/before the Internet!) A lyric from one of my favorite Beatles songs: “The Inner Light,” by George Harrison ---
**Author:** ![Marcus\_Flavius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a4c791/32.png) [@Marcus\_Flavius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marcus_Flavius)\ **Post date:** [October 1, 2019, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093/40 "2019-10-01T16:59:12Z")
> [@JKellyMap](#): > > “Without going out of my door > I can know all things on earth” > > (even without/before the Internet!) > > A lyric from one of my favorite Beatles songs: “The Inner Light,” by George Harrison Fernando Pessoa said something along the lines of (I’m paraphrasing heavily here) “a wise man doesn’t need to travel, he can know the entire world from his chair. Only extreme poverty of imagination justifies the need to travel.” [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/anyone-else-despise-the-modern-obsession-with-travel/841093.md?page=3)