Can You Really See the World Online?

Well, apparently one guy thinks so.

Yesterday I got an email telling me inwotr was following me on Twitter. Yes, I have some random people following me on Twitter that I don’t know and I can’t for the life of me figure out why they’d want to follow me. I clicked on inwotr’s profile, which didn’t help in figuring out who this guy is. Next, I moved to his website, and it’s starting to make a little more sense.

Inwotr believes he can travel the world by viewing Flickr photos and Wikipedia. He also says you can interact with the locals via Twitter.

I’m having a hard time imaging how this works, but I think I’m one of the purists he mentions in his blog. You can definitely learn all you want about a place online, see pictures, read blogs by people who live there, etc. But there is no way I could ever recreate online trekking the Palaung Mountains in Burma. No one could ever know what it’s like to experience the thrill (and outright danger) of driving in Romania unless they were actually there. There are sights, sounds, smells and feelings that can’t be passed on through the Internet.

Now, I’m all for using my Twitter feed to let people know more about life in Washington, DC. But, I really hope that would only be the trigger for them wanting to come and experience this city for themselves.

Explore posts in the same categories: DC Life

Tags: online travel, social networking, travel, twitter

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