Technology for the Technophobe Traveller

04 Dec Technology for the Technophobe Traveller

The next generation! Techno-savvy but not so talkative….

Today, my nieces and nephews have a wealth of information at their fingertips with unlimited internet available on all their devices. Whilst it is amazing to have the answer to a question within seconds, I do feel they have lost the ability to be as resourceful as I was growing up – an important life skill. Being in my 30’s, I am of that generation where the internet just started creeping into our lives in my teens. There was no simple “Google it” response when we didn’t know the answer to something. I had to go to the library to find reference books and Encyclopedia Britannica for my answers. I would write snail mail letters to experts and wait for weeks for a response. Now, you can call someone over WiFi and speak to them directly from the other side of the world. My word – how technology has changed our lives!

Island bush phone in the Cook Islands

Whether or not this change has been positive or negative, is constantly open for debate. Personally, I have been a huge Technophobe – afraid to use a smart phone until just a couple of years ago. Using technology and gadgets don’t come as naturally to me as my nieces and nephews, but as a world traveller, I have seen how the internet is a huge tool that offers a lot of benefits. It amazes me how smart phones are practically pocket computers where you can do everything from not only receive phone calls, but also send emails, book flights, talk to family, record baby’s first steps on a video, run an entire business, watch a movie, identify constellations in the night sky – all from something that fits in the palm of your hand! Here are some applications I could not live without now:

Making new friends over FaceBook – connected by our love of kiting….& FB

FaceBook

People either love or hate FaceBook (FB) and I have to admit I was a reluctant user to begin with. While everyone was jumping on the band wagon, I stubbornly refused to start an account until one day a good friend of mine created an account on my behalf so that she could share photos of her kids with me! Now, I use it almost daily – predominantly to keep in touch with people through Messenger. FB has reconnected me with people from my past travels that I always wondered what had happened to them.  It keeps me updated with people even though I haven’t seen them in person for almost 20 years and it feels like the years have not been lost at all because I see sporadic posts of them with their kids and significant moments in their lives. This alone is a phenomenal advantage! However, I can absolutely see the negatives of this application as well. During a time when I was struggling with my own personal happiness, logging on to FB and seeing people’s “perfect” lives pop up in my feed made me feel inadequate and worthless. But FB was also a lifesaver. It was possible for people to reach out to me, to encourage me, and to make me feel better about myself. When used in the correct way, FB can have a very meaningful and positive effect on you. Today, there are many support groups that utilise the FB platform and the accessibility to such groups is extremely easy. I have even used FB to find local kitesurfing groups all around the world and through this feature, made instant friends who I visited during my travels.

Talking to family via video chat allows you to feel connected from anywhere in the world

Whatsapp

The ability to communicate with people on the other side of the world, for free, over the internet via live chat continues to amaze me. There are many applications that facilitate having instant chats through messages and voice calls, but I find Whatsapp to be one of the best. I have lived in a very remote village in Tanzania, and while things like FaceBook Messenger and Skype could not work over the bandwidth, I always had success with Whatsapp. You simply register your home mobile/cell number and you can call anyone that also has Whatsapp, send text messages and photos, from all over the world. You can create groups with selected contacts – which I have utilised for working groups to keep everyone informed of project updates and follow-ups and now I have a family group chat so we can update each other of our daily adventures. It is a very versatile application and an easy way to keep in touch with loved ones far far away. I don’t know how the first explorers survived the years without seeing their significant others while they travelled the world, but thank goodness maintaining friendships/relationships long distance is so much easier these days. To be able to utilise voice and video calls is a huge privilege and allows international connections to continue no matter how far apart people are. 

Hong Kong Hiking Meetup group on a hike

Meetup

I spent 3 months living in Hong Kong last year and when I first arrived, I was finding it difficult to meet people with similar interests, who could speak both English and Cantonese. It was by chance that I found out about an application called “Meetup” and on here there is a Hong Kong Hiking group and that was how I managed to make an instant group of friends and find hiking events for every day of the week! There is a plethora of groups with different interests from sports, languages, theatre to handicrafts. The usefulness of Meetup varies between locations as it is not utilised all over the world, but whenever it is, it is a very effective tool for finding like-minded people in a very safe and easy way.

Couchsurfing

I would not have been able to have as many authentic local experiences without this amazing application. In essence, Couchsurfing (CS) started as a “good karma” application where CS Hosts would offer you a place to stay and in the future, you get to pay back the favour by helping out another traveller by giving them a place to stay. You might not get to help the exact CS Host that helped you, but the point is, that you get to help someone. Great concept! CSing has now evolved to not just be about a free bed/couch/floor, but it is also an avenue to learn from a local, teach that person about your home country and traditions and build lifelong friendships. I reckon 90% of the people I have met through CSing are still my friends today, keeping in touch via FB or the occasional email.

Navigating through Iceland was easy with offline maps on hand

Maps.Me– still prefer a paper map though! 😉

There are many GPS/map applications out there, but I have found Maps.Me to be particularly user friendly. I downloaded all the maps for Iceland when I spent 2 weeks driving around this stunning country and was able to use the maps offline to find my way in every place with little drama. It also shows fuel stations, camp sites, some attractions and it is also good for walking tracks – so it was super handy to have on hand. I have since used it in Canada and Moorea.

iOverlander

I was introduced to this application this year when traveling through Canada in a camper van. Other people that have camped in locations previously will post about their experiences with photos and hints with very clear directions. You are able to submit new locations and offer advice too. Most of the sites listed are free camp spots.

Finding a beautiful out of the way free camping spot like this is easy with iOverlander

Spotify

This music app allows you to have music with you everywhere you go! You don’t have to be online all the time either. If you subscribe to a higher level, you will gain access to having music offline. This keeps your music collection easily fresh and up-to-date. The app also makes recommendations of similar songs, artists and playlists for your entertainment value.

The power of words

It is a fine line between using the internet for good vs evil. Whilst there are new issues with cyber bullying, preying on those with low self-esteem and other negative side effects, the internet is going to continue to be a huge part of our daily lives regardless – we just need to embrace it and use it to our positive advantage. It is extremely important to not lose the art of effective face-to-face communication – so remember to put your phone down and engage with people in meaningful conversation when they are right in front of you! You must also be sensitive to unintentional misunderstanding via written words. It is easy for the mistaken placement of an exclamation mark or use of capital letters to be interpreted incorrectly and feelings to be hurt from simple miscommunication.

Even in Fiji, free WiFi can be found just about anywhere!

Today, I spend a lot of time away from home and often in places of poor internet connectivity. I have accidently found myself working more and more at sea. This year alone, I will have spent 7 months at sea. Next year, I am scheduled for almost ten! Now, I happen to love working at sea – I love the motion of the ocean, looking out to the endless horizon, spotting wildlife, watching sunrise and sunsets over the sea, waking up in a new port/country every day – this lifestyle could not be more perfect for me. But now that I am away more and more, the importance of being connected is becoming increasingly significant. I used to shake my head at crew members running off the ship to find free WiFi in a Port to call home, spending their free couple of hours glued to their devices instead of exploring that new place that they are in for only one day. But now I get it. To feel connected to your loved ones is VERY important to keep your motivation and spirits up. I do hate the fact that I have become so reliant on WiFi but it is one of the most important tools in which to keep in touch with my world back home. So if you are reading this, take a moment to think of your friends and/or family far away from you and just drop them a message. Let them know you are thinking of them and help them to feel like they are still part of your world. It may seem like a trivial thing, but that little message has the power to make someone feel VERY significant. No one likes to feel forgotten.

My home away from home – the Seabourn Encore, as seen from my office – the Zodiac 🙂

**If you use an app that you can’t live without, please let me know what it is in the Comments box at the bottom of this post so that we can all learn from each other. Keep on making Happy Connections all over the world! YOLO! 🙂