Those Who Wander Open Debate #4

Is Being ‘Well-Traveled’ Mostly About Status?

Photo by Luke Bender on Unsplash

“Researchers find our reward systems are activated most when we achieve relative rather than absolute rewards; we’re designed to feel best not when we get more, but when we get more than those around us.”

― Will Storr, The Status Game: On Human Life and How to Play It

Greetings fellow wanderers,

In August, I introduced a new feature at Those Who Wander—a Those Who Wander Open Debate. To reiterate, in place of a usual weekly post, I’m posting a monthly debate question, focused on various travel and adventure topics.

The format is simple. I will post a question for debate and pose a 1-2 paragraph prompt about the question. There will then be a poll and an opportunity to leave a comment to expand on your answer. Please feel free to respond with any length you like and if you have any research you’ve come across on the topic, I would love for you to share it with us here.

I will also repost the stats from the previous month’s poll. In October, I asked ‘Is adventure work, play, or something in between?’ with 29% saying that it is ‘Play’, 57% responding that it is ‘Something in between,’ and 14% answering ‘Neither.’ Thank you to everyone who participated and shared your thoughts!

Now onto today’s question and prompt:

As social creatures, many of us care deeply about being seen and respected by others. We seek status in various ways, from making money, playing sports, adorning ourselves in fancy clothing, or owning many expensive things to showcase to others. This behavior applies to travel as well. Yet, travel is unique in that it is an experience rather than a material item and thus we require photographs and other documentation to capture and convey our experiences to others to gain status. Nowadays, many of us share a common belief: That which is not seen by others does not happen. Much of modern status-seeking—especially among the travelers of the world—has taken on a new form via social media where many of us are compelled to curate our lives through photos, videos, blogs, and newsletters. We have an anxious tic that we must be seen in other places if we want to be ascribed the status of being ‘well-traveled.’

Now, I don’t know if this is a modern pathology of social media or rather just another variation of a deep feature of our shared humanity. Since time immemorial, many rituals and comparable experiences across many cultures have taken place in social settings where status-seeking is central: Dances, music, theater, gladiatorial combat, jousting, political speeches, sports, and games. These social events compel us to attend them, capture them, and talk about them not just because they are merely entertainment but because they are events imbued with important meaning which often confer status onto the participants by an audience that idolizes them. Ultimately, such events are meant to be shared and seen by others. So too is this behavior ever-present on the internet today as travelers and adventurers vie to be social influencers or signal to others “Hey look at me, I’ve been to all these places!”

There is competition to appear more traveled than others. Occasionally we come across a thread of snarky comments and videos on Instagram asking why someone would visit a less-traveled country when they could be going to places like Paris, Rome, Dubai, or French Polynesia. Those who consider themselves well-traveled sometimes shame others for not luxuriating in the most lavish and status-boosting places—their cache of social media posts abounds with photos of all the places they’ve been.

On top of this, advertising and marketing sell us images of the pinnacle of the ‘well-traveled’ status seeker (conspicuously found in an airline magazine while we struggle to sleep back in coach)–the top Michelin restaurants across the globe, a glass of wine and charcuterie perfectly pictured in a first-class seat, and someone looking far more tranquil than you can ever image on a beach in Bali. After dozens of long sleepless red-eye flights and babies screaming next to you, we can’t help but dream of one day living it up, bound for Southeast Asia in our first-class seat.

Are these images we share of us sipping Chianti in an Italian villa or taking a cruise through the Mediterranean no different than the Ferrari in the driveway and the 10,000-square-foot house? Is travel just another luxury item many of us work hard to flaunt around to make ourselves feel better or somehow prove that we made it up the social ladder?

Some of us view this way of looking at travel as rather shallow and I suspect most of us try our best not to inhabit this world of merely just seeking status through travel. Nevertheless, I can’t help but wonder if we are still inevitably trapped in our own version of a status game as travelers. Anyone who values travel and partakes in this activity still wants to photograph, document, remember, and share their journey with others throughout their lives. On some level, status creeps in, does it not? We want to be identified as someone who travels for various reasons, not necessarily because we are vain or self-serving but perhaps because we believe there are benefits to traveling in the modern world and suspect travel is essential to our well-being.

There is always somewhere else I want to visit and explore but is it mainly because, deep down, I want to reach the status of being “well-traveled?” I used to believe that social status was something I could choose to opt in or out of at will—that my status was something I alone could control. But it is not. Everything we say and do becomes filtered through a “social milieu”, as every anthropologist loves to boast. Thus, if I eventually reach the status of being “well-traveled,” it won’t be fully up to me but will be how others perceive me in relation to others who they’ve deemed “well-traveled.”

A part of me still feels that I shouldn’t care about pursuing social status, especially when it comes to travel. I don’t feel as if I’m in some race or competition to see as many countries as I can before I die or make it in the Explorer’s Club. That isn’t it. However, if I’m being honest with myself, eventually I do want to be well-traveled, not because I want to collect places like game cards or feel better than others but because I am motivated to better understand our world and our place in it. I feel my motives are somewhat pure in my pursuit of travel and yet status is inevitably a part of the game, is it not?

What are your thoughts? Is being ‘well-traveled’ mostly about status?

Expand on your answer in the comments:

Thanks for being a fellow traveler with me and participating in the discussion. I look forward to hearing your thoughts. Please consider subscribing, sharing, and supporting this project—much more to follow.

Cheers!

-JSB