On a month long tour around Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos I noticed a frequent pattern amongst the thirty people I was traveling, me included. We all noticed it, and laughed at ourselves for it. Arriving at any hotel we did not look the amenities, or consider the comfort of our beds, or even delight at putting our bags down briefly. Entering a restaurant, food or drink were not foremost on our minds, and the menu not the first thing we read. No: murmurs of wifi, wifi, a flurry of clicks, the password spreading like playground gossip, and suddenly we were all happy again, connected to the world wide web and able to read emails, check twitter, and crucially read updates on Facebook, and update them on our travels, posting photos and updates to make our friends (however loosely defined) jealous of the AMAZING time we are having. Whilst this kind of reliance on technology comes with a desire for validation and a need to know, and a certain level of narcissism, and we are frequently reminded of how those less addicted to technology are more rounded, better people, can technology actually help our travels?
Read more at Thought Catalog http://thoughtcatalog.com/francesca-baker/2013/12/traveling-with-technology-makes-life-harder-to-see