‘Travel shaming’ is latest social media trend as people seek escape during pandemic
Surging COVID-19 cases have done little to stop some Americans from flying the friendly skies while others hunker down at home, only fueling frustrations during the pandemic.
Some travelers now say they’re being “travel shamed” on social media after posting photos and video from their vacations abroad.
Sarah Archer, a travel blogger from Boston, told CNN the online criticism left her with “a pit in my stomach” after flying to Europe to visit her boyfriend over the summer. The EU’s borders were closed at the time, but Archer found her way in after Croatia reopened to U.S. passport holders.
“They (critics) asked me if it didn’t seem irresponsible and selfish to travel at this time,” she told the news outlet at the time. “I asked myself: ‘Am I doing something wrong?’ You question yourself.”
Photographer Steve Dampman said he also got flack for traveling, despite taking precautions.
“I did my research,” Dampman said, according to WABC-TV. “It’s not like I just got on the plane. Southwest wasn’t booking middle seats.”
More than a million people passed through U.S. airports ahead of Christmas despite the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s repeated warnings against holiday travel, McClatchy News reported. A similar surge in travelers occurred at Thanksgiving, with over 9 million Americans passing through airports in the week before and after the holiday.
A new highly contagious coronavirus strain has only turned pandemic fatigue into outright anger as people continue traveling and “living their lives” at the risk of possibly infecting others.
“I’ve definitely been pretty shady and thrown up some Instagram captions or Twitter captions about why I think it’s irresponsible, all the things I think you should be considering before you make a decision to travel for leisure,” travel writer Lola Méndez told The Washington Post.
Méndez, who has spent the last few years traveling for work but stopped at the onset of the pandemic, said she tries not to guilt-trip people into seeing things her way. Instead, she sends articles from popular travel destinations that include quotes from locals urging tourists to stay home, according to The Washington Post.
Personally, Méndez said she can’t stand the thought of being the reason “someone got sick and died because of me,” she told the newspaper.
So is social media shaming effective at getting people to think twice before booking a flight?
Sue Scheff, an internet safety expert and co-author of “Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate,” told USA Today there are “no winners in online shaming.” Others such as La Salle University assistant psychology professor Julie Hill say it’s all in the approach, and advises discussing the pandemic in person — not on social media where wires can quickly get crossed.
“For the people in your life, talking to them offline is going to be much easier,” Hill said, according to WABC-TV.
This story was originally published January 6, 2021 at 5:52 PM with the headline "‘Travel shaming’ is latest social media trend as people seek escape during pandemic."