Envy or exhaustion? What’s behind “travel shaming”

The theme of travel, especially for pleasure, these days has become particularly divisive since a paradox we told you about in this article weeks ago was detected. In short, before the very recent provision of the Ministry of Health, it was basically allowed without too many restrictions to travel abroad, but not in Italy. Not bad: Minister Speranza, instead of loosening the measures on travel in our country, has made those who decide to cross national borders more severe: on their return it will be necessary to undergo a tampon and fiduciary isolation of 5 days (14 for countries outside the Schengen area).

A measure not too senseless, in hindsight, which the Government could reach even in the absence of an understandable controversy on the part of the Italian hoteliers and tourism sector.

It is interesting in this turbulent landscape, the feeling that often hovers towards those who have the opportunity to travel or reach second homes. This is a phenomenon, to which the English has given a precise label: travel shaming. You travel? And I blame or condemn you.

A reaction he found in social network a fertile ground. Those who travel in these complex months are perhaps not thinking about the advisability of not exposing the experiences they have on their own channels; and in some cases this has sparked a storm of negative comments. And it has happened a little to everyone, including famous men and women Kylie Jenner after a trip to Paris (half formally forbidden to Americans) e Kim Kardashian who surprised his closest friends and family by giving them a trip to a private island in French Polynesia.

Often we fail to glimpse that behind a post in a dream place there could be a job assignment. Yes, there are people who have to travel for work, from cui i travel influence for which the work almost totally coincides with the travel experience; Barbora Ondrackova is one of them and atInsider confessed: “I personally don’t understand how a person who has never met me, who doesn’t know me, and has nothing to do with me, has the courage to say that I’m breaking the rules, that I’m not wearing a mask and spreading Covid19 – which I have not contracted so far – based on a 25-second video ».

Of course, negative reactions are part of the work of those who expose themselves on social networks to a large number of people (in the case of Ondrackova, about half a million on Instagram alone); however the phenomenon of travel shaming it also affects people who don’t have such an extensive following.

Let’s remember, not everyone travels for pleasure: refer an acquaintance to the travel shaming for an airplane flight without knowing the real reason is at least imprudent. The reasons behind a move are varied and include work, family members in need, up to the most unfortunate event of a loved one’s funeral; different reasons that can bring a large number of people on airplanes: CNN, for example, reports the data of the Transportation Security Administration according to which in a weekend in early 2021 in America they would have traveled about 4 million passengers.

Finally, let’s not forget that a pleasure trip can have one therapeutic function and we all know all too well how much our mental health has been severely tested by months of confinement within the home (or just outside). Indeed, as he also notes Roberta Maeran, professor of Psychology of Tourism at the University of Padua, «being able to take a vacation is an expression of more and more of a necessity».

And as much as we need relief valves and scapegoats for what is happening, we could also make an effort in travel to put ourselves in the shoes of someone who for one reason or another is boarding a plane and put aside possible negative reactions. , both those motivated by the tiredness to which we are all exposed and by simple envy.

(Photo: unsplash.com).