Hypermobility in backpacker lifestyles: the emergence of the internet café.

Abstract

This chapter explores how networked technology is made ordinary at an Internet café and how backpackers use the Internet as 'non-places' in the form of Internet cafés, and how this use may be impacting the experience of being an independent traveller. It is argued that Internet cafés as hypermobile places are not aimed at encouraging digital inclusion and at enhancing social contacts between locals and travellers or any sense of community. Rather, cafés are used by travellers as part of their hypermobile lifestyle, and many cafés are embedded within enclaves and hostels and are not fully embedded in place. It is indicated that Internet cafés created to serve travellers have changed those same travellers, transforming expectation and altering the very rhythm of their travel days, the use of travel time, perhaps undermining the systems in place that provided expertise, the middlemen/women and locals.

The Social Affordances of Flashpacking: Exploring the Mobility Nexus of Travel and Communication

“…Hannam and Diekmann (2010: 2) explain that this shift reflects broader demographic changes 'where older age at marriage, older age having children, increased affluence and new technological developments, alongside increased holiday and leisure time have all come together.' In this sense, flashpackers have 'the means to move fluidly across the globe through various travelscapes,' but they are also able to 'connect instantly with multiple networks from virtually anywhere through an array of mobile technologies' (Paris 2012b: 191;O'Regan 2008). The second connotation of 'flashpacking' thus refers to backpackers' increasing use of new technologies and social media (Jarvis and Peel 2010).…”

“…By the late 1990s, as Internet cafés proliferated on the backpacker circuit, scholars also began to note the effects of information and communication technologies on backpackers' sociable arrangements, not just with other travelers, but also with distant friends and family members (Sørenson 2003;Germann Molz 2004O'Reilly 2006;O'Regan 2008). This has led to a small but growing body of scholarship that has sought to make sense of the way new social technologies -including mobile smartphones, portable computers, travel blogs, and online social networking sites -extend and revise the contours of backpacker sociality (Mascheroni 2007;White 2007, 2008;Hannam and Diekmann 2010;Paris 2010Paris , 2012aParis , 2012b Germann Molz 2012), a trend known as 'flashpacking'.…”

Disconnected and Unplugged: Experiences of Technology Induced Anxieties and Tensions While Traveling

“…Pearce and Gretzel noted that 'the experience of being unplugged involves several strong sensory elements or more precisely the absence of highly familiar sensory inputs ' (2012: 39). For some of the hypermobile elite and an expanding number of individuals managing complexity caused by the mobilites of the contemporary networked society, being 'unplugged' is upsetting and produces feelings of distress and anxiety (O'Regan, 2008). As individuals navigate their increasingly complex work, social, personal, family lives in both the 'real' world and the virtual world, there is a clear expectation and perceived necessity to be constantly connected.…”

Exploring the Role of Facebook in Re-Shaping Backpacker’s Social Interactions

“…When considered in parallel to Facebook's new Open Graph Search functionality (Facebook Inc., 2013) it seems likely that we will continue to experience greater blurring of the boundaries between digital and face-to-face communication and interaction. In short, we are increasingly moving towards an environment where electronic communication is always present even in the case of backpackers who were previously partially defined by their reduced access to these technologies (Bowe, 2010;O'Regan, 2008;Steinfield et al, 2009). The purpose of this paper is to (re) explore how Facebook has impacted social relationships between backpackers and their personal, professional, and 'fellow traveller' networks, particularly in-light of recent changes to Facebook and the increased reduction of anonymity while travelling.…”