This New Yorker article about the author’s experience in Finland and Norway is an interesting and rather critical view of the impact of “bucket lists” and Instagram photos on remote areas. It also explains how the photos you see online of this phenomenon are enhanced at several steps, (And I will add that they fail to show the dancing movement, which for me is the most amazing aspect).
Posted by
Forest Grove, OR
11804 posts
I was so sad after reading this article, fascinating as it is! I am sad on several levels: for the people chasing "something" to find a happiness that eludes them, for the overrun locale's that are not equipped for the influx of Instagramers, and for the environment that suffers from over-tourism.
Social media destroyed a restaurant in Portland when after decades in business they were awarded "best hamburger in the world" (or some such accolade) and they closed their doors permanently because they could not handle the crowds. Lost forever because of some insane need to experience "the best" and have it on a Facebook page.
Makes me rethink posting my experiences.
Posted by
San Francisco Bay Area
5697 posts
OK, I admit I'm an eclipse chaser -- four totalties so far. But at least with an eclipses you get years of lead time ( although no assurance that you will actually get to see the eclipse if your location gets clouded over) And the localities also get advance notice so they can plan for crowd control.
Posted by
New York, NY, USA
11294 posts
Thanks for posting this.
Posted by
Northern Rockies, British Columbia, Canada
546 posts
I have an alternate opinion.
This winter, my struggling little Community hosted a first time ever "Northern Lights Festival" from mid to late March. Approximately 200 people from mostly Asian countries ( but also Switzerland, the Netherlands, Germany, Austria, Denmark, and other parts of northern Canada) ) travelled here for up to 7 days to attend some of the events. This brought much needed economic benefit to the community. Tons of pictures were taken and I'm sure many/ most ended up on some social media platform or another.
We heard anecdotally from a number of the visitors that they're going to tell their friends back home about it and organize trips to future Northern Lighst Festivals here.
We had "Canadas biggest Snowman in 2019" as an added bonus!
So it's not all a bad news story.