Turning Hard to Easy, Then Back to Hard

I often forget how much more challenging, logistically speaking, it used to be to travel like this. But then again, maybe not. Different, certainly. I can’t speak on it from experience.

Having every option digitally available at your fingertips has made travelling more streamlined. You can book more stays, more quickly. Find out more than you could imagine about a destination in mere seconds. Retrieve directions from any point A to any other point B.

At some point though, the buffet of options and flexibility we’ve created for ourselves begins to work against us. It holds us back. There are too many choices; never the perfect one. Our attention is now pulled in thousands of directions at once, so often causing a head spin that leads to inaction.

In a more analog world, you were forced to commit. Wholeheartedly, in person. You wouldn’t constantly be reassessing your decision against myriad other options you could’ve selected and their opportunity costs. You’d committed, and now you were along for the ride.

I don’t suggest that renouncing technology is an inherently better way to travel. It may be more expensive, more fraught with risk, and possibly more stress-inducing at times. Today, it undeniably is easier than ever to navigate the world. Yet, there is an optimal zone for technological dependence in my mind. Become too reliant, and you may end up losing much of the day-to-day human touch that makes travel so special. The interactions in broken language and hand gestures. The fun that comes from unknown. The stories that emerge from messing up sometimes.

Plus, you might just worry yourselves in circles trying to find perfect solutions to innately imperfect problems. Keep searching for the flawless accomodation and, by the time you know it, they’re all sold out. Or you have a 10-page shortlist that feels like a insurmountable chore to comb through in itself.

Travel technology is incredible. I have a seat on the bandwagon, to be sure, and derive a lot of enjoyment from discovering new ways to difficult tasks easy. I just don’t want it to take away too much from the raw experiences wrapped up in finding your foot on the road, nor the way in which having less choice can often be a good thing.