Consider the following. You get live updates on your flights, and your boarding pass is on your phone if you so choose. On arrival, you can get a new phone number so you can make local calls. You book a train on your phone, your QR code is your ticket, your account holds your receipts. You book a ride through an app that keeps you safe, automatically sends you a receipt and the driver has no economic incentive to take you on a scenic route, above all no need to speak the language. Hotel bookings, currency converters, the apps go on and on. Translating apps are incredibly useful and Google Maps changes your possibilities for exploration. You cannot get lost; you move around as a local. It keeps getting easier and safer.
All of this appears to be a huge net positive to opening our world for everyone to learn and experience new cultures. Overall do you think it takes away from the learning experience and adventure of being in a new culture and learning a new language or does it add to the experience?
If you haven’t considered all the travel apps that change our travel experience, here is a ‘top 15’ video of must have travel apps on Youtube.
Hello Rich,
Great post! I think it’s part of the adventure and it adds to the experience! Having recently travelled to Italy and Japan this year, these digital processes and mobile travelling apps are a part of everyday life. If locals are able to “move on” and partake in societal efficiency, why can’t we? I believe it helps create a more fair form of living. In fact, I think North America can learn from various ticketing systems, purchasing systems, payment systems. etc.
In North America, we are very stuck on traditional ways of doing things. Remember when we’d have to attend a box office/store to purchase a ticket or admission? With the aid of mobile apps, we can save time by purchasing ahead of time and OPTIMIZING our specific preferences. These technologies have enabled a lot of personal choice and the opportunity to “buy” with the dollar. I could see how that principle may raise concerns of monetary power. But, these apps have adapted to human geography, where it better serves our growing population. I don’t see planning or more responsibility an issue if it is needed to function to newer systems in place. It’s really a shift in mindset and cultural acceptance. Overall, it can be overwhelming but a lot of its practice hones responsible citizenship. I can appreciate its effects of realism, research, user involvement, and useful information.
Hi Kgear,
Thank you for your story, it is so valuable and relevant as we reflect on how mobile technology has and is changing our very existence. I can really relate to your story, I imagine we are of a similar generation in which we’ve lived through the transition. The first time I lived abroad (as an adult) was in Japan, that was pre-smart phone. The second time was Korea and that time I owned a smart phone. The two experiences were worlds apart because of that simple fact. In Japan, if I wanted to go to the post-office for example I would sit down that day and study the conversation I would have to have in Japanese to make that happen. I muddled through many hours of conversations in Japanese with friends and made deep connections. I was lucky enough to explore much of the country, but only by tagging along with Japanese friends. By the time I lived in Korea, it was already weird if you were to ask somebody for directions – just Google it (or in that case Naver Map it 😉 On the other hand, it empowered me to go about my life more like a local would. Recently, a couple, friends of mine went on a trip to Japan. They don’t speak Japanese, but they were able to rent a car and get around without problems (and that is not because they speak English there), GPS, translators, Apps, internet… solved. I live with my feet in two worlds, one foot in the camp of being so excited and grateful for all the affordances and opportunities these technologies provide. The other foot is in the nostalgia camp of reminiscing about simpler times when the world was filled with mystery and adventure and highly reliant, as you say, on those human connections.
PS – a cheese locating app is a fantastic idea!
Rich,
Your observations are stark and spot on!
Having the ability to Google anything and everything removes the need to engage with others. We seek data instead of dialogue and get annoyed at the human nuances taking time and making mistakes when delivering it. These frustrations are invariably heightened in contemporary second language interactions. To translate and communicate, Apps and tech are used when instead there should be animated attempts to cross culturally communicate. It is in those specific moments of socially constructed dialogue that learning oight to have happened, not in a screen interaction for the immediate generation of information. Further, in the process of data defeating dialogue, we are losing our socializing storytelling abilities; or rather, cutting them off at the knees of the body of Blooms Taxonomy. We are removing the foundational learning building blocks of the need to both ‘remember’ and ‘understand’ since technology has taken over these realms in human brain computer interaction. New shape and cognitive domains required! Maybe a star?
On a lighter note, one cheese App coming right up! I’ll be in Kelowna next week so I may need to do some field research at one of its 44 wineries for a cheese and wine-pairing affordance.
I am torn between tradition and technology, but i will provide an example of how i believe technology detracts from traveling in a new country and culture. I spent 20 years overseas during the time of the global change to mobile culture (2000-2020) so I can appreciate the early days of dog-eared Lonely Planets, paper maps and personal recommendations to meet potential contacts or go to specific places for desired items. Without contemporary mobile technology aids, we had to talk to people to get the latest information, especially when few of us understood the local news or could read the papers. These conversations created connections that resulted in friendships, businesses, and romantic relationships. Life happened naturally, serendipitously rather than being programing as an intended experience into an algorithm-spewing App.
One example of a pre mass mobile, low tech experience in overseas culture that comes to mind is was in Seoul during the early 2000s. As a foodie seeking the comforts of home, it was difficult to find good cheese. As South Korea was much more technologically advanced than Canada at that time (and probably still now), there was still no single mass communication system (that the smartphone would soon come to offer.) Mobile culture was developing with texting technology and cheap cell phones, but word of mouth remained the main communication vehicle to get better cheddar. Instead of googling to find gouda, you had to socialize using language and showing personality to find “The Red Door,” the place that anyone having those conversations at that time would know as a foreign foods shop in Itaewon, the US army neighbourhood, where fromage was rampant. But linguistic and character currencies were not always direct passports to cheesier places. One had to learn local mannerisms or how to communicate with a multinational group of companions who were all at varying levels of baby talk and motherese in the foreign country and language to fondue it right. It was consistently the most fearless amongst us, those who got out to talk to local people because there was no other centralized system to spread important havarti-related information, who learned the language and integrated better into the culture than others.
Twenty years later, the conversation has shifted to being online so to ignore digital discussions would derive a dreadful disadvantage for denizens. Should i ever return to my international career, perhaps there is social space for an asiago App or brie blog in my life.