Feature photo: Phillie Casablanca Photo: permanently scatterbrained
What are the impacts of long term travel abroad?
I often hear talk about how travelers made a bold and courageous move to “leave behind the American dream” or “escape from the rat race” to travel abroad. Well, great, I think, but what happens when you go back?
Perhaps in contrast to many travelers and travel bloggers, I’m not sure I see the act of getting temporarily out of the 9-5 grind as inherently courageous or life-changing. Sure, in some contexts it is – but in others, it seems like a vain and pompous way of, well, to put it bluntly, slumming it, playing at poverty and adventure for a certain period of time before settling snugly back into a world of Western plumbing and three dollar lattes.
Photo: colros
Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with taking a break from work to travel (nor, I should add, is there anything wrong with Western plumbing), and I think escaping daily life for awhile can lead to some perspective-altering experiences, but I just don’t buy that it’s always an act of nobility to leave a cushy job with a pile of savings and hit the road for a bit; I don’t buy the frequent argument that this automatically creates a life or society changing perspective.
But this piece about how adventure travel kills conspicuous consumption changed my mind for a bit. I cringed at the opening line about ditching the American dream, thinking isn’t it the “American dream” that’s allowed you to save up for this whole adventure and to appreciate it from the distinct perspective of someone from the land of plenty?
But the article humbled my cynicism. The author talked about coming home to an overflowing storage unit of stuff she realized she didn’t need. She discusses the changes in her lifestyle in San Fransisco after more than a year traveling around the world, and how she doesn’t feel the need to fix things that aren’t broken. More interestingly, she notes how before resistance to materialism felt contrived, whereas post-trip, it feels natural.
Photo: chopr
Thinking about this, I experienced a full-on surge of travel optimism.
I have my personal opinions about how traveler quests for “authenticity” or “simplicity” often enough end up reinforcing the same dichotomy between noble poor paradise and wicked material wealth, but this article offered an alternative: taking an awareness of the enormous gap between wealthy developed nations and poor developing ones -between the excessive haves of the former and the often desperate lack of the latter – back home and crafting a different lifestyle out of it. Yes. That’s good.
And you, reader? What do you think? Do you think travel abroad -adventure or otherwise- curbs consumption? Share your thoughts below.
About the Author
More By This Author
- 5 Essential Online Resources for Finding ESL Jobs (5 comments)
- Getting Hassled In Top Travel Spots: Preventable or Inevitable? (11 comments)
- Maps and Travel : How Would You Map Your Travels? (8 comments)
Related Posts
12 Comments... join the discussion!
-
-
Thanks for the comment, Paul! I remember how it was coming home to Ohio after a year in Mexico – I’d already traveled in South America and lived on Reunion Island, but for some reason starting a relationship with a Mexican and visiting his family and getting so much further into it radically exaggerated things. It was shocking to me that everybody had washers and driers – and not just washers and driers, but new brand, new white ones. And all the little things that everyone “needs” – new coats, new shoes, new cars….amazing.
↵ -
The steady stream of new experiences while traveling is enough to render many material possessions unnecessary. Since, you’re so overwhelmed with the “newness” of everything, all you need are your senses to be perfectly content.
However, once you’re back to a stagnant existence, material possessions become more important.
One way that foreign travel has impacted me is that now I can’t help judging everyday purchases in terms of “potential travel”. For example, while paying $250 for my car registration last week I thought, “that’s 1/2 of a plane ticket overseas!” Dang!
↵ -
Travel has definitely changed my view on the need for “stuff” but what I notice more is that I’m more aware of wastefulness. I think about how much I want to eat before I make / order so that I don’t throw food away needlessly. I use less water. I recycle or reuse just about everything. My husband and I create maybe one medium-sized back of garbage a month. I know that a lot of people who haven’t traveled think that the things they “waste” are simply out of sight, out of mind, but I’ve found that, being in developing countries especially, I think a lot about where things will go when I’m done using them.
↵ -
I think it depends on whether you ditch the 9-5 job and hit the road for the sole purpose of having a life-altering experience. It’s the small, subtle shifts in thought that are more important..I wouldn’t expect to come back with radically different views on the western world, but I think I’d incorporate different habits into my lifestyle.
↵ -
It definitely helps curb the consumerism.
Problems we think as “large” don’t seem as dire anymore.
We learn to appreciate what we have a lot more.
But ultimately, it boils down to the individual and if they ‘truly’ take anything away from the experiences travel brings.
↵ -
Having never had a really well paid job where I can save and spend simultaneously it occurs to me that surely travel curbs conspicuous consumerism through the very nature of having to redirect your money/funds/savings towards travel tickets/food/hostels/etc and away from the desire to buy stuff…or at least that’s true in my case.
↵ -
What a great article you’ve written Sarah!
Absorbing knowledge from a less consumptive society isn’t something we are forced to do while traveling, instead it is a choice we make to view ourselves from a different angle, and you have obviously decided to do so. Good for you.
I only wish Molly in your linked article had learned as much. After all leaving a couple bags of clothes too bad for Salvation Army on the street for the homeless shows a lack of understanding of poverty, or maybe a reluctance to even take responsiblity for disposing of her consumptive habits. Homeless lack homes they have clothes.
↵ -
I totally agree with your viewpoint, Sarah. Although I do believe in the power of long term travel to open people’s eyes to the fact that they don’t really need all the stuff they think they need, it’s being in a completely privileged position that allows us to do so. Most of us (I include myself here) are so deep in the Matrix, so to speak that we have no idea of the level of consumerism we are involved in. It creeps in slowly (those clever marketers!).
Think about getting ready to travel. We try out many specialised backpacks, buy expensive hiking boots and high tech rain gear or quick dry travel clothing. There is an entire industry devoted to marketing to us, who believe we are leaving consumerism behind. And we often suck it up. Then you end up tramping up a Himalayan mountain with all your bells and whistles next to a porter who has been hired to carry three backpacks (and not by their perfectly adjusted, high-tech straps) while wearing an old woolen sweater and some flip flops. Some will notice this discrepancy and make adjustments to their lives upon returning home, and others will notice and take a “thank God I’m home so I can take an hour long shower when I want and buy, and eat all I want”, type attitude. Or they might give a, “Whew! At least I don’t have to live like that!” response and go on as before. Travel doesn’t change everyone for the better. But for some, being actually confronted with poverty can give us a shake. I have met many people who won’t travel to India because they “couldn’t deal with all the poverty”. So, you’d rather live in denial?
We don’t need to travel to learn about our level of consumerism, but travel certainly can give us a slap in the face! What’s done with it after that is up to the individual.
P.S. That article you linked to annoyed me, too. Their other annoying thing was talking about “adventure travel”. What’s the “adventure” part, again? Is that when you have to buy water in bottles?
↵ -
I definitely agree…even if it doesn’t curb consumption a whole lot, or if your curbing is only temporary, traveling/living abroad definitely shifts your perspectives. I recently returned from a year in China and more important than the realization that “stuff” is temporary, is the realization that we pay ridiiiiiculous amounts of money for that “stuff.” My roommates’ shelves are stocked with DVD box sets of shows they barely watch, and boxes tucked under the bed of clothes they bought and never wear.
I was definitely much more materialistic before I left for China, and now it amazes everyone I still keep my clothes in my suitcase- I think it helps remind me that those few jeans and shirts are all I really need, and no more.
↵ -
Nice post, Sarah. We are getting ready for a 3-year trip starting October 1, 2010. Rather than store our stuff for the time we’re gone, we’re getting rid of it now and have been for over a year (including the house and car).
I don’t know that the trip itself is making me less materialistic, but the idea of wanting to travel for long stretches like this for the rest of my life means that my life back home has to be simple and easily packed up. And hundreds of books, dozens of shoes, and way too many clothes just doesn’t fit that kind of life.
So I think I’m less of a consumer now because of my need to be mobile. And while I don’t think I’ll always be this lean, I’m pretty sure I’ll never have as much stuff as I did 5 years ago. It just makes it too hard to live when you have all that stuff weighing you down.
↵
