Disclosure: I’ve traveled and I’ve lived abroad in two different countries and been dozens of places outside of my ‘home’.
But I don’t get this obsession people have with travel being the uber alles thing you can do and how if you don’t do it all the time or as much as possible you are a ignorant incurious person. I don’t see my travel as being this amazing thing… it was just a nice thing that I did and frankly I don’t remember very much about it and what I do remember I don’t think is a more important memory than lots of other things I did in life.
I don’t think I am superior or ‘worldly’ because of it compared to someone who has never traveled abroad. But it is an extremely common belief/attitude I encounter on a regular basis and it confuses the hell out of me. I’ve met plenty of people that just go on the attack when you don’t want to ‘exchange amazing travel stories’ with them or daydream with them about all the places you’d like to go. There are some places I’d like to go, but again, it’s not a big deal to me that I see it as some big important part of my life and I certain do not condescend towards people who aren’t as ‘well traveled’ as I am like it’s some contest or achievement.
It is definitely possible to travel and not experience culture.
Thinking you understand culture byecuwse you have the internet is sort of admitting your that type of person.
The problem with talking to randoms online is the things they don’t say because it’s their normal. Experiencing those differences in normals is what is being discussed here.
When I was in school this was a literally social studies topic discuss many times over all the years we learned about other cultures which really reinforces that some people dont pay enough attention to receive any value from travel.
That doesn’t mean other can’t or don’t.