HELP...The Algorithm Ate My Itinerary

In an era where holidays are curated for the camera, Kannagi Desai asks if we've stopped truly enjoying travel

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I don't have a photo of the best croissant I had in Paris. It came from a nondescript corner boulangerie in the 20th arrondissement—no queue, no fanfare. I ate it standing on a quiet pavement as the spring sun bounced off café windows. The layers crumbled on my fingers, butter pooled in the corners of my mouth, and for a moment, I felt deeply, selfishly present. This was in early 2025, a trip that reminded me what it meant to truly experience a place.

And I didn't reach for my phone.

It's a strange sensation, that presence. Unedited. Unshared. I've since tried to describe the taste of that croissant to friends, and each time, I fail. But I remember how it felt. And maybe that's the point.

We travel differently now. Not worse, necessarily, but certainly more performatively. We arrive at destinations not just with passports and playlists, but with Pinterest boards and preset filters. The goal is no longer to get lost but to broadcast content. We travel, it seems, not to escape our routines but to package them for Instagram.

NO MORE STUMBLE & FIND

A recent study by Skift Research confirms what most of us already suspect: social media is the new travel agent. Over 60% of Millennials and Gen Z travellers say they choose destinations based on recommendations they've seen on Instagram. The same report found that reels and Pinterest now rival traditional guidebooks in shaping vacation plans, nudging users toward 'aesthetic' hotels, viral cafés, and photo-friendly landmarks.