The World was Meant to be Experienced
August 25, 2026
“Somethings can’t be downloaded.”
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Technology has made it possible to see almost anywhere in the world without leaving home. We can virtually walk through Rome, watch a drone fly over the Grand Canyon, tour a Caribbean resort on YouTube, and have artificial intelligence build an itinerary before we finish our morning coffee. But seeing a place on a screen and experiencing it are fundamentally different things. Research by Cornell psychologist Thomas Gilovich and colleagues has found that people generally derive more enduring satisfaction from experiential purchases than from material purchases, in part because experiences become more closely connected to our identities and relationships. Travel may be one of the purest examples. Long after we forget what we paid for the hotel, we often remember how a place made us feel.
Those memories are intensely physical. You remember feeling your boots on an uneven Grand Canyon trail as you watch the shadows change across the canyon during an amazing sunset. You remember the first time you actually saw that almost unbelievable turquoise-colored ocean rolling onto a Caribbean beach. I still remember the joy of getting lost in the narrow streets of Venice, where taking a wrong turn can lead to a tiny square, an unexpected café, or something you never would have found on an itinerary. None of those experiences can be duplicated by a photograph, video or virtual tour because you weren’t merely looking at the world—you were standing in it. Technology is wonderful for helping us get there. But once we arrive, perhaps the best thing we can do is occasionally put the phone away and experience the place with our own eyes.
The Takeaway: Use technology to discover the world, but remember that the best parts of travel still require you to actually be there.
