I’m continually impressed with how technology has changed our lives. Even in my own lifetime, technology has made drastic changes and improvements which have drastically changed our lives forever. While this wasn’t always the case, the last century has seen dramatic changes in our technological ecosystems. While people’s ability to travel hasn’t changed drastically, the experience of travelling has.
1) Remembering the basics – It’s funny, but whenever I travel somewhere, the one thing that I am always certain to pack is my chargers. Typically, I like to be connected to the world, and making sure that I have power is a critical part of it. I do like that 90% of my devices are now USB-C charging. It definitely makes things easier if I only have to bring one cord. I do have a couple of things that still need other chargers, namely my watch, but I have found a portable charger which will do both my phone and my watch at the same time.
2) Digital tickets – I’ve been on several flights recently where I have been able to use my phone and use a digital ticket to get on planes. I am super excited that I don’t have to carry tickets, particularly if I have to take a connecting flight. It always used to bug me that we would get paper tickets, mainly because they were printed on relatively fragile paper and I struggled to keep them intact.
3) Being “cut off” from the world now has to be a conscious choice – I know I’m a big proponent of people being able to use technology all the time because it makes life better. That being said, there is something to putting your devices down while you’re out in the world. Being “cut off” becomes the desirable part of travelling, specifically when you go on vacation. If you are constantly connected, being on holiday could be as simple as turning off your e-mail for a day. Now that being connected all the time is something that everyone takes for granted, the time when you are away could be the most valuable part of travelling for you.
I fully believe that there is very little chance that people moving around and travelling will stop. The fact of the matter is that (short of teleportation), there are not going to be drastic improvements in the way we travel, so we should really dig into how we can use our technology to improve our travel experience. I recognize that my saying “HEY! LET’S LEAN INTO TECHNOLOGY TO SOLVE PROBLEMS!” is not necessarily out of the box for me, but for the purposes of travel, fully utilizing everyday technology is a straightforward way to improve the travel experience.
How do you use technology to get around?
Let me know in the comments section below. If you like this blog post and want to see more, you can follow me on Social Media (LinkedIn, Instagram, and Facebook @jasonlovefiles) or Subscribe to my blog to get new content delivered directly to your mailbox.