Travel Bloggers Don’t Like Talking about Privilege

Something that I’ve always been fascinated by is the rhetoric in travel blogging around the ability to travel, and the financial discussions and implications of traveling for a living.  Most bloggers, from my experience, have defended their lifestyle as something that anyone can attain, no matter their current means or socioeconomic status.  The common thread is the thought that if one works hard and saves the best they can, then they too can quit their job (or jobs) and become “location independent.”  I see article after article (ok, blog post after blog post) about bloggers sick of answering questions about how they can afford to travel – and other than a few honest posts here and there, I don’t see many bloggers actually answering the question directly.

I think it’s because no one likes to talk about privilege.

Travel is an extreme privilege, and it’s because of shame of that privilege that most bloggers refuse to acknowledge that actually, no, most people cannot upend their lives to become digital nomads.  There are already too damn many travel blogs out there to fill any given niche to economically support that many people traveling the world and finding themselves.  Some folks just have to find themselves at home.

This is why travel bloggers get angry when people ask them how they can afford to travel the world without having a job, or without thinking of other responsibilities.  

Humans are, for whatever reason, uncomfortable when confronted by those less fortunate than themselves.  It is a base instinct to try and place oneself on equal footing with those around them – so when encountered with questions about affordability, it is typically easier to shrug off the question by saying that anyone could do it than to actually say, “Well, X, Y, and Z fortunate circumstances in my life allowed me to do this.”  Personally, I am thankful to be without student debt, to have a job that affords me the opportunity to take exotic (though frugal) trips with my husband, and to not have any dependents I need to support.  These are the factors which allow me to travel.  Not to mention, I am privileged to have been raised speaking English, the world’s first language (for the time being), and to be a white male, arguably the sole demographic that can travel with relative ease almost anywhere in the world.  Being gay doesn’t do me any favors, so I’ll leave that one off the table for now.

And being able to travel the world (full time or not) is a privilege.  Any traveler, digital nomad, or whatever you want to call it has enough capital to pay for that first plane ticket or book that hostel room.  They are not bound by any type of obligation to stay home, earn money immediately, pay debts, etc. (I understand that many folks travel and pay student loans simultaneously, but that is a rarity).  To make money while traveling the world takes time and work and talent, sure, but it also takes a certain amount of serendipity that doesn’t fall to anyone that wants it, and it’s incredibly naive to think that’s true.  

I don’t mean to come off as bitter.  I have no doubt that if I really wanted to, I could live on the road and make a decent living.  That’s not what I have chosen for myself and my family – instead I have chosen relative financial security so that my family can afford to travel more permanently in the future, when hopefully we can not worry about working at the same time.  This prospective situation is one that I’ll only be able to manage if I am equal parts diligent and lucky.  But also one that I wouldn’t be able to achieve with a whole lot of privilege in a world that, for whatever reason, has dealt me a good set of cards.

Shrugging off privilege is easy and convenient.  No one wants to think they have it better off than anyone else – or that they have better or different opportunities that allow them more myriad travel opportunities.  But it’s also irresponsible.  

As people producing content that’s meant to be useful and unbiased, we’re responsible for creating accurate information, and misconstruing our personal experiences doesn’t help the reader planning a trip to whatever destination they’re reading about.  Let’s be open about our privileges, innate and acquired, and stop perpetuating the narrative that anyone can lead a vagabond life, gallivanting around the world.  In a perfect world this would be true, but unfortunately it’s just not the case.