Travel blogging: An auto-ethnographic study of how online interactions influence a journey

摘要

Travel blogging’s necessary routine and connectedness directly challenge the sensation of liminality seen as the core experience of travel. Using the lens of auto–ethnography, this paper finds that the practice of travel blogging affects the experience of travel in three main ways: by creating a routine in which the traveller needs to regularly find an Internet connection; in taking the traveller out of the moment and putting them into a detached narratorial role; and, by mediating the experience of travel as the blogger frequently takes their online audience into account as they travel. Taken together, these results suggest that blogging precipitates a constraining effect on travel as it creates structure and commitments which limit the freedom of the journeyer. Moreover, the requirement to narrate in a way that matches the conventions of the blogosphere suggests that blogging travellers will have more homogenous patterns of travel as similar images, sites and destinations are pursued.