Travel Escapism: Does Society Push People to ‘Check Out’?

For me, it’s more about balance. I love how full and complex my life is and I get a thrill from accomplishing so much and staying familiar with current technology. Eventually, though, I get pretty tired and a little bored with the disciplined routine required to make it all happen. A change of scenery and pace is a great way to stay objective about my lifestyle choices and remind me that there are other ways to live. If I don’t feel trapped, I don’t need to escape.

i feel more powerless when i’m traveling because i see how big the world is, how less i know, how much humans exist and that you cant change anything about the society.

But you can make the best out of it – accept it, see the positiv aspects in it. the power of positiv thinking – and i think traveling helps to find it for yourself.

I feel like the world is so big and traveling is the way to explore it all, not necessarily to get away, but I definitely see how people could use it as an excuse to “get away” from problems and things. It’s more of an adventure

I believe the growing trend of personal technology is a symptom of the overall problem: every day, the individual expression of meaning in our lives becomes less and less significant. We break away to find that significance.

The sense of belonging and security we get from being part of fashionable movements comes at the cost of being a passive participant. This leads to the weird condition of being “addicted” to things we dislike. Paraphrasing Paul Sills, if we don’t find ways to confirm our existence, we find it in negative ways like apathy, delinquency, excess…

We say we’re going on trips “to get away from it all”, but that’s not true – it’s just difficult to put into words what’s really bothering us. We leave because we’re looking for an authentic dialogue of a meaningful nature, and it’s very telling when so many of us go looking for the same thing.

Great Article. It’s a very interesting question, and one I identify very strongly with. For me though, I often feel as if our modern society has made survival too easy. For many of us, we are privileged enough to not be challenged in any way on a day-to-day basis. We have routines and although life remains unpredictable, it is easy to become complacent and enjoy the luxuries of modern life. Travel, for me, heightens my sense and challenges me in a way that is exciting, sometimes scary, but always incredibly fulfilling.

I honestly dont think enough people travel…it is a case of balance! traveling gives you perspective and changes you as a person. The world is out there just waiting to be explored…..it’s certailnly not all about working, big screen tv’s and paying into your pension! We are becoming more and more disconected from each other and the meaning of life, we live in a greedy society, success is measured by cash, that is wrong!

There is also a case for the fact that, as human beings we are still animals with instincts. Our lives have grown so complex that it proves very hard to relate this to our instincts of survival and reproduction.

If I could; i’d just live near the coast, survive from fishing, foraging etc and have a family… I still consider that the goal of everyone: a home and family, but the Tv, car, computers etc tempt us, simply because they exist. It still baffles me how amazing our technology is and I use a computer everyday, BUT I really would love to live in a purely real reality, and yet we will see an ever more “cyber” one develop.

In the end, if I could, I would… Escape.