Virtually there: Travelling with new media

Authors

  • Peter White
  • Naomi White

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v10i8.1267

Abstract

This paper examines the uses of mobile, fixed telephone and Internet–based communication by travellers and the implications of that use for the experience of travel. For most of the respondents, continued communication with their networks of contacts back home were integral to their travel experience, allowing them to maintain an ongoing symbolic proximity or co–presence with people with whom they shared a common history. Travellers make clear distinctions between the uses, benefits and drawbacks of phones, texting and Internet–based communication. The continuation of intense communication between travellers and non–travellers suggests that people ‘back home’ and the travellers are involved in forms of ‘virtual travel’.

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Published

2005-08-01

How to Cite

White, P., & White, N. (2005). Virtually there: Travelling with new media. First Monday, 10(8). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v10i8.1267