Our social media obsession started in lockdown.
YouTube mainly, an increase in our use of Facebook mainly for Messenger chats with family. Instagram started right at the end of the pandemic, reluctantly but surely. Even though ‘real’ life has resumed with the new version of normalcy our online lives have stayed stuck in 2021. YouTube has become my ‘go to’ source for ‘how to’ instructional videos. How to fit out a van. How to pack a hiking backpack (I seriously watched this today, top tip, sleeping bag at the bottom). How to freeze-dry food. It’s all online just waiting for me to find it and watch. And I do!
Most of the travel and hiking vloggers we follow are significantly younger than us. They tend to be childless, in their late 20s and early 30s, footloose and fancy free and experiencing the world with a greedy courage I would love to have shared in those decades of life. Some of them travel in vans, others backpack around the world. A couple have done bicycle trips and some are on boats. The common denominator is that these social media natives are definitely not living the 9-5 on a suburban block!
Thanks to our parasocial relationships with these tanned healthy young travellers I am completely out of the loop on any of the free to air television series and am fortunate there is no water cooler around which to congregate at morning tea time for I would be unable to contribute anything meaningful to the conversation. Not MAFS, not I’m A Celebrity and not even Alone Australia. Unless you want to talk about the benefits of a composting toilet, the comparison between a long wheel base Sprinter and a converted Troopy, or whether the vloggers who all seem to be congregating in Baja for summer already know one another and will do a collab. Then I’m your gal.
Ian and I are addicted to #vanlife YouTube videos. As we slowly begin to collect some of the #vanlife elements into our own travelling life (hello to Emanuelle, The Beast!) we are also noticing that the very people who showed us the way to the nomadic life are beginning to turn their backs on their tiny homes on wheels. They’re buying land and building offgrid homes, starting families, putting down roots, staying home…
Sigh. I’m thrilled for all of them as their lives progress into the next phases, really I am. This is exactly how it should be. But we seem to be in a parasocial relationship with a rather large age gap and are just realising that, despite the love we share, navigating the ages and stages is not as simple as it would seem on paper.
Recently we watched one of the videos announcing the end of a van life journey. We were tucked up in The Beast with an incredible view out the back doors of the Mallacoota lakes. The sun had just set and we were still buzzing from the gorgeous colours of the sky. From our cosy bed we set up the screen ready for a dose of inspiration from one of the couples travelling with their dog in a van. Sadly, instead of showing us the glorious possibilities of life on the road they shared all the reasons they had come to hate van life and then proceeded to use the vlog to market their new business.
At the end of the vlog Ian and I sat quietly. We were both a bit confused. What was it that had felt so wrong?
Things change. People change. Hairstyles change…
We’re ok with the change! As we ate our breakfast (outside with an incredible view across to the ocean, if you’re interested) we reflected on just what it was that felt wrong about the episode. In the end we came down to this.
It felt like a breach of contract.
Here’s the thing. Once a blogger becomes associated with a particular category of content, in this case travel vlogging, they have an unwritten agreement with their fan base to produce content that fits within that envelope. When they turn away from the topic, particularly unexpectedly, and expect you to align with a completely new category (in this case it was health and wellbeing products) well, it feels as if you’re caught by a very clever scammer. You know, the sort who tempt you in with things you do want and then tighten the net around you with the things you never would have said yes to in the first place. Just like those ones!
None of these vloggers are scamming anyone. They’re just living life. It was a surprise to us to acknowledge just how engrossing a social media community can be, and how you can become a part of one without even putting up your hand and asking to be chosen on the team. It’s the same on any of the social platforms, isn’t it?
Ugh. It’s insidious when you look at it like that! And now I’m one of those ‘public’ viewers putting in my two cents worth of opinion. How easily we fall!!!
I don’t have to look far into the real world for some pretty inspiring travellers close to home. You won’t find P&J anywhere online, you need to be out on the roads and on top of sand dunes and tackling outback Australia to find them. They’re the real thing and we are following their every move intently in the hope some of their courage and spirit will turn out to be genetically transmitted. They’re just not home enough to soak in their travel knowledge slowly, we need to get on the road and try and keep up!
In the meanwhile Ian and I will keep watching travel YouTubers. We’ve found a few in vans who are in Australia and closer to our ages (hello NAS Adventures!) and stages (Empty Nest Adventures). We’re looking for vlogs that tempt us with things that are just a bit outside of our travel comfort zone, things that entrance us and make us say, just for a moment, maybe we could…?
You can find me in books and reading, writing, stationery lovers as well as anything hiking and travel. What communities are you invested in online?