Smartphones killed my favorite movie

And my traveling habits

Before Sunrise

When I went to Cartagena in Colombia, I took a day off of the Conference I was attending to stroll around the city by myself. The days in Cartagena were scorching hot it was almost impossible to walk during the daytime without breaking a sweat. The kind of humid warmth that not even a cold shower can solve.

It was lunchtime. I saw a small and cute restaurant and got in to eat. I immediately spotted ceviche on the menu. Nothing better for a warm day than a portion of cold and delicious food. In this small restaurant, I had the best ceviche I had ever had which surprisingly, had pieces of mango in it. Having been accustomed to more traditional ceviche from Bolivia, this was a welcoming novelty to me.

I still recall this day and this meal, as I do to so many I have had before while traveling. I have never been the type of person to travel with all my schedule done, everything set on an Excel sheet. 

To me, the best part of traveling is exploring a city without knowing where it will lead me.

Photo by Rendy Novantino on Unsplash

But lately, I have noticed that I don't lose myself anymore.

In my few last travels, Google Maps was almost always my go-to tool. If I needed food, I would open it and easily look up the closest place to me. Check the ratings and how expensive is it. Only then make a choice.

Trusting online reviews and Google ratings seems safer. You know exactly where to go, how to get there, and what to expect. Sometimes you have already even chosen what you are getting since there's a menu with photos online.

But it's boring. It takes away the unexpected. The magic.

That got me thinking about one of my favorite movies:

Before Sunrise.

Before Sunrise embodies the feeling of roaming around aimlessly in a new city because that's precisely what the movie is.

I love this movie for its simplicity. Throughout the film, a young couple whose paths have just crossed gets to know each other while discovering Vienna for the first time. The movie is nothing but a long dialogue. 

Before Sunrise

They enter random clubs, talk to street artists, they simply explore the city. Whatever it brings. Each place and encounter brings something new to their long and unexpected date. It feels like a day they would never forget.

If Before Sunrise would happen now, they would probably also choose where to eat on Google Maps. Maybe search for a fun activity happening in the city on Google. They would have exchanged social media and WhatsApp details. The whole story would be ruined.

Of course, I'm not saying you can't have fun nowadays while traveling, but a part of the surprise is lost and with it a sense of wonder. A sense of synchronicity. Feeling like you are exactly where you need to be.

Don't get me wrong, I love the internet as the next person. I just feel that we also lost so much to it. I think many agree as well, there's even a book with a list of the 100 we've lost to the internet. 

Not all changes are for the worse, but maybe we should reclaim some in real-life activities. It's okay not to know the exact route or to choose a bad restaurant. Maybe a funny and remarkable situation will come from what at the moment seemed like an awful choice. You never know.

As for me, I won't rely so much on my phone on my next travels. I'll just see where the universe takes me.

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What to read?

Disconnected: How to Stay Human in an Online World (Emma Gannon)

I love Emma's podcast Ctrl+Alt+Delete where she interviews many authors about creativity, writing, work-life, and internet use. In her book Disconnected, she explores how to improve our internet usage, without really turning everything off. She built her career around the internet, so she certainly understands its importance.

What to watch?

Before Sunrise (1995). A French grad student meets a guy from the US by chance on a train. He asks her to get off of the train in Vienna and they spend the day together.

If you are inclined, watch the whole trilogy. Each movie was filmed 10 years apart, so both the characters and the actors are 10 years older. Or, when watched by itself, Before Sunrise also has some magic to it.

What to binge?

Black Mirror. There's no series that best embodies how technology can go wrong as Black Mirror. Each episode is a story of its own that takes one aspect of society today related to our use of technology and turns it up a notch.

Not all of the stories are good, but some really deserve to be watched. I would recommend skipping the last season though, which brought nothing new or interesting.