It all sounds a bit dodgy, doesn’t it? The “double-lives” led by so-called Insta-travellers, which is really just a neologism for travel bloggers and/or vloggers, particularly those who have Instagram accounts which are in most part dedicated to their travels.
No, there’s nothing overly sinister about it and so this is not some exposé of some cult which travel bloggers are a part of or anything like that. In my defence though, I guess this isn’t an overly click-bait-y title either, because Insta-travellers, or the most astute of them at least, do indeed lead what appear to be some kind of double-lives. They want to make an impression online, so they will do some things that can help them get there, whether that be finding the best site to buy Instagram likes for their travel photos, to finding out how they can bring up their follower count for more engagement.
There are two different types of these travel bloggers who lead double-lives though, one which I guess is positive, while the other is not only negative, but all the way sad, in my opinion. We are all about the positivity here at ConfusedMatthew though, so in addressing both types I guess I should start with the negative type of double-life Insta-traveller so as to end off on a high note with the positive variety…
Shady Double-Life Insta-Travellers
The first kind of Insta-traveller who leads a double life really makes me consume the content shared by these travel bloggers, vloggers, etc, with a mandatory pinch of salt, if I choose to interact with it at all. I cannot help but feel deceived and I’ve actually seen it all in action in real life, being the frequent traveller that I am.
I’ve also developed a bit of an eye for spotting them from a distance, just by looking at the first few bytes of the content they share, whether it’s their pictures on Instagram, the content they post on their travel blogs, or the videos they upload to their travel YouTube channels. It’s not always the case, but a dead giveaway is often that of how highly, highly polished everything is and how it all just looks perfect – “Insta-perfect” is the phrase I’ve heard used.
So what they do is only document the finer side of their trips, which is why everything just looks so beautiful and perfect. What they intentionally fail to do is document the real side of their trips, like some part of the otherwise pristine beach which has some litter on it and worse, they stay in the best resorts and hotels for one or two nights and then act as if that’s where they were lodging the whole time, whereas they were slumming it out in a decent-enough hostel for the majority of the time!
Positive Double-Life Insta-Travellers
On the flip-side are those double-life Insta-travellers who basically experience everything twice. The first time is with their cameras or gimbals, etc, while the second time is purely for the enjoyment, so no camera. Sometimes they do it the other way around, but either way, it’s all about getting the content for their blogs and then about fully enjoying these elements of the destination they’re visiting.
I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all, even though it essentially means you might have to pay twice to experience the same holiday destination activities.
Matthew Cecil / 2 months ago