Backpacker 2.0

This is a translation of one of my blog entrys about Argentina and Antartica


Backpacking has changed a lot since I started doing it. I’ve been backpacking for about 12 years and on my first trips it was hard to find a place that would offer Internet. Connection was slow and expensive. In 2001 I won a trip to Australia and Thailand, and part of the deal was to write about my trip and share experience online at worldsurface.com. I’d say worldsurface.com was one of the first true Web 2.0 communities and in 2000,when it was launched, way ahead of its time. Back then, everyone was using Hotmail to communicate with their friends back home, or to keep in touch with people they met while traveling. I never had heard of blogging, Facebook did not exist, my primary search engine was Yahoo and Netscape was still big.

Fast forward to 2008 it’s a completely different situation. Virtually every backpacker I met in Argentina was on Facebook. Myspace? Forget about it! Every hostel I stayed in offered at least 2 PC’s with free and fast Internet connection and most of them had WiFi for free as well. People don’t ask about emails anymore, they want to know your name so they can add you to their Facebook friends. While its much easier to keep in touch with your friends with such platforms, it also makes hostels a lot less social. Backpackers these days spend hours on the PC to chat with people back home, upload pictures or blog about their trip. Big flat screens show MTV or some other random programs in the “community area” and people just sit there consuming TV garbage. On my first trip to London in 1998, the hostel did not even had a TV, and everyone in the community area was either talking, or reading. I

I know backpackers are a lazy bunch (and I am one of them). But flying 15 hours from Europe to Argentina, spending 20 hours on the bus to Iguazu and gather around a laptop to watch Filipino prison inmates do “Thriller” – come on! I rather do a little walk down to the river and watch the sunset at the three corner area – Argentina – Brasil, Paraguay! True story – out of 20 people, no one was interested in joining me for that sunset. And most of those fellow travelers had spend their entire day at the pool already.

So, leave your Notebook/Netbook at home and if you travel – spend your time exploring and save youtube for rainy days back at home.