Travel blogger calls out phones, social media for making vacations 'disappointing' experiences
A travel blogger and content creator made a "controversial" opinion in a recent Instagram post after saying that social media and cellphones have made travel "disappointing" since the goal has turned into a photo op instead of an experience.
A content creator has people talking after making an opinion online about vacations becoming "disappointing" with the increase of technology and social media.
Helene Sula, an American living in England, is a full-time travel blogger and author who has made a career out of vlogging and taking photos of her adventures.
But now, Sula is realizing some of the negative effects social media and cellphones could have when it comes to traveling.
"I think we're traveling to take a photo or to take a video, and I'm seeing this so often that I think what's working on social media is a quick flash grab," Sula told Fox News Digital in an on-camera interview.
"I think that we're getting so wrapped up in posting an image online, posting a video online, rather than looking at the history of a place."
The Oxford resident says tourists are not taking the time to recognize the beauty around them and the history of the sights that they are seeing.
Sula is seeing a lot of people try to capture a singular moment as a sort of highlight without getting into the reality of what it took to reach that instance.
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"When we are doing something enviable, we want to show other people that we did it, we made it and 'Look at me. Look what I'm doing,'" said Sula, who is author of "Two O’Clock on a Tuesday at Trevi Fountain: A Search for an Unconventional Life Abroad."
Helene and Michael Sula are now full-time travel bloggers who left America and moved to Germany but have since moved to the U.K. and share their travels on social media and on the blog "Helene In Between." (Helene Sula/@heleneinbetween)
"And the reality, of course, is that travel can be tough. You know, taking trains and planes, and you're jet-lagged, or you're tired. Travel is not glamorous. It can be difficult, and we're leaving out those pieces and just showing [for example] the Trevi Fountain."
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As a full-time content creator, Sula acknowledges the positive sides of social media and how it has become a way for people to find new places to explore and share their memories with friends.
But with that, there comes a point in time in which it is important to put away technology and live in the moment, she said.
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"I do think we're so tied to [technology] and we feel like we cannot live our lives to the fullest without our phone in our hand," she added.
Sula realized something felt different about a recent music festival she attended, but it wasn't until after the event that she realized the problem was people on their phones and not being present. (Helene Sula/@heleneinbetween)
"While, of course … we want to document the concert, we want to document the places that we go, I think we forget that you can still take a photo and or video and live in the moment. You don't have to document the entire time."
Sula posted her initial comments about travel being "disappointing" on Instagram, where her once-believed "controversial" opinion was met with an overwhelming amount of support from social media users, she said.
"I stopped traveling just for the ‘views’ and instead doing it for the stories of those places and the people I meet. Has changed the who travel dynamics completely for me," one Instagram user wrote.
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"Yes!! I went to the great wall of China and took maybe 10 pictures because I was just in awe of it and wanted to soak in every second. Our guide even commented about how we didn't have our phones out compared to so many other people! I just wanted to enjoy the sights in the moment," another user commented.
Helene Sula is sharing her "controversial" opinion about travel, and many social media users appear to agree with her. (Helene Sula/@heleneinbetween | iStock)
Sula encourages travelers to take in their surroundings by soaking up history of the places they are visiting and landmarks they are snapping photos of, rather than leaving without any thought of the amazing sights in front of them.
"I think there's so much history and learning that can be achieved when you're taking trips, whether it's … being a tourist in your home city, going one state over or going internationally," Sula said.
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"When we learn the history of a place, which you can so easily achieve when you travel, there's so much information out there that I think it just becomes such a learning experience … learning about the history of these landmarks and the architecture of the culture will just broaden your horizons and make it means that much more," she added.
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