The study of sociology is not limited to “sociologists,” of course, and so I see evidence of sociological thinking in many different places. This article, for example, is explaining the reasons why more Americans don’t travel. There’s nothing particularly mind-bending about it, no deeply hidden explanations that, after reading the article most people would say, “Hey, I’d never have thought that in a million years.” Nonetheless, the article points to some patterned ways in which the lives of Americans are shaped by factors and forces that they do not control. We think we’re free to travel, for example, but our society is structured in ways that make it less likely for us to make that “free choice” than other people who live in cultures (i.e., social systems) that are structured differently. Sociology is all about understanding these patterns and, while the ones discussed in this article are not quite as interesting as suicide, if you ask the average American why more of their neighbors do NOT travel, probably few would offer the reasons pointed to in the article. So I include this post as a way to see that most of us are doing sociology on a day-to-day basis and we just don’t realize it.
The not-so-invisible structure that shapes us
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. Another thing Europe has in comparison to America is its train system. This is a cheap yet quick method of traveling to other countries. The article says it well when it talks about the wide variety of places to go in America. We can get a little taste of just about everything here. This obviously makes us think, why pay money and go outside to country when you can stay within boarders and experience similar events. But what people do not take into account is the cultural experience that you get from traveling overseas. This is a huge reason in my mind why traveling is so important. Americans are very close minded about other countries and have this feeling of superiority almost when comparing their lives or country to others. Americans are unknowing and unwillingly restrained to stick to America. I think this is a very big part of life, and it can help to figure one’s self out, which is why I plan on studying abroad my sophomore or junior year.
Now when I read the article, There were two things that caught my eye. They are saying that the cultural and geographic diversity of America and ignorance/skepticism are causes for the small number of Americans who leave our country. The ignorance of other countries and the fear that they will be attacked because of recent shocking headlines lead people to think that America is better than the rest.
To the average American their country is the IPad, the latest and greatest thing. Europe are the imitators who are advance but just not as good. South America and Africa are the original Ipod mini, they are so behind that they don’t matter and nothing can be great about them. Asia is the Ipod touch, popular among many people but just because of the many capabilities it has in such a small size.
First off, the America may seem to be a cultural “melting pot” but that just isn’t true anymore. So many of the people who could make that possible are immersed in the American thinking that they are quickly stripped of their culture. You may think that I am just speaking out of my ass but I am not. I am the son of Ethiopian immigrants, so I have seen and observed the Ethiopian community of my hometown. I see happening more and more every year. Ethiopian culture is very tightly knit around family. Now I see both Ethiopian youth AND adults stray away from family and their community for the American culture of building strong social networks and working. I cannot and will not say that the those people, who would be able to educate people about the world in this country, are even remotely competent enough to accurately portray the Ethiopian culture. To truly experience Ethiopian culture, you must go to Ethiopia. To experience an imitation of Ethiopia, go to Little Ethiopia. AMERICA IS NO LONGER AN ACCURATE REPRESENTATION OF MANY CULTURES.
When we see that Americans (as a whole mind you) view America to be city upon the hill fill of many different cultures, many amazing landscapes and the best people in the world, it makes sense that they do not leave the country. The only way to anyway to see a change to this trend is to educate the people. To first off educate them that America, yes a superpower, is not the only great country in world with different cultures. Secondly, that the news that you see about certain countries does not portray everyday life, and especially vacation life, in that country and the only way to do that is get people interested enough in the cultures enough that they will want to learn and see for them themselves. The key is KNOWLEDGE.
This article was a real eye opener to something I always kind of knew already but something I never actually sat down and thought about. Only thirty percent of Americans have a passport out of the 308 million plus citizens in this country as the article stated. That is amazingly low when you actually think about it. That means the vast majority of Americans have never stepped foot out of the United States which in a world were we are starting to do more and more business internationally is quite startling. I mean sure some of those people may think they have a good idea of what other countries are like or what their customs are but yet again what kind of idea do we actually have if we’ve never actually experienced their cultures first hand. What most people see of foreign countries is what they see from different news sources. And with that they are not even painting a well rounded picture for us. We only ever hear of a several things when it comes to other countries such as natural disasters being one and then bad things that occur in a country. Take Egypt as an example. Other than recently with the uprising and overthrow of their government when was the last time we actually heard anything about them. Most Americans probably didn’t even know a single thing that was happening until the most recent issue. This really says something about our culture which we hold so near and dear to our hearts. When it comes to this we really do need to start branching out and help gain more cultural knowledge of other people. This is where I believe that the year between major phases in our lives could bring about many good things for the U.S. Such as it would give many of us college students a lot of good life experiences that could prove to be very helpful in our future careers. Also it would help to bring America closer to other countries because if we we’re able to communicate better with them it would very well help us out and advance our culture.
I have spent my entire life traveling to as many places as I possibly can to get the chances to experience other cultures. As an individual, travel, throughout the United States and the world, is something I thrive on. However, I never really thought that others would be completely opposed to going to foreign places for the reasons mentioned in the article.
We always talk about the “invisible strings” that guide, shape, and semi pre-determine some of our life and this is a perfect example. It is just as far to California from here as it is to Europe or Central/South America. So why don’t more people go to Europe; because we are a nation that doesn’t push to invest in uncomfortable things individually. I’m not saying we don’t partake in uncomfortable situations, but if we can, we avoid them. Think about it: there are more and more bilingual signs that have both English and Spanish on them and English only speaking citizens are greatly opposed to this. We set our own limits that are leading to our failures because our mothers’ mothers and fathers’ fathers always had an outlook that the United States was the supreme, there was nothing better out there. With this outlook of only discovering other cultures through our own is only going to hurt us.
The comment about how the United Kingdom and New Zealand encourage taking a year off to go travel and live life makes me incredibly jealous of that life style. We work ourselves to death before we get a chance to enjoy the different cultures of the world in their own settings. This sets us, the United States, back so far as a country. We limit our outlook and greatly diminish our chances of growing as individuals that can and will influence our entire country one day.
We put ourselves in our own little world, our own bubble if you will, because it is normal, it is “safe”. To be quite honest with you, I have been to places where some are much more exotic, others much safer, some more accepting of things like travel. And to be perfectly honest with you, people in those countries were much more fascinating to talk with and were much more grounded. They were better learned about the world, they see it as a place to live and be a part of, we see it as a place to learn about through our televisions and computers. Where is the culture and learning and adventure in that?
I am gonna take a personal account on this question and provide the simple and only reason why I have never traveled, something that is beyond the control of many people by sociological factors as well, and that is because I am poor. I was born poor, I was raised poor, and until I get a job out of college I will be poor. It costs a lot of money to travel. It costs money to buy a passport, to pay for the flights or cruise and so forth, for hotel stays, for all the hospitality costs and for whatever you are going to do on your travels. though travels can be made on humble arrangements, this is something for people with money to do. People who are either born into money and traveling is a part of their sophistication, or people who are well into their professions with savings and it is either a vacation, a personal pursuit, or and actual part of their livelihood, are able to do so.
My parents have had difficult childhoods in negative environments that caused mental hardship and emotional problems for them and because of this and genetic dispositions, they are legally disabled on account of mental health. Neither have finished high school nor can they hold a job. I was raised on welfare. What one person may spend on a week long getaway to Jamaica is more money than my parents were granted in a year to raise me and my sister on. Growing up in this situation is oppressive, its a struggle by financial constraint as well as living in a world of supportive parents and working adults when your parents do not. To a certain extent, this separates you from a sense of knowing amongst the rest of society and it is hard not having an example to follow for how to make it in the world. There is no opportunity for a “luxury” such as travel in this situation. As I got older this is especially hard to accept when their are many peers of mine who’s families are typical workers and are financially secure enough to go on vacation in the summer.
Many people go to Florida, but that is the basic within the country travel destination, something even still unattainable for me at this point. Then there’s the cruises to Jamaica and Mexico of my best friend from high school , or the family trip to Italy, by my roommate sitting right next to me, when he was 17. Here I am now, 19, a sophomore in college, and I am that person who always says the stereotypical “I’ve never even been on a plane” when talk comes up about travel. As far as vacation goes, the Jersey Shore is the vacation place for me throughout my life, the furthest west I’ve ever been being here in State College, and to Virginia in the south. Going to the Italian market or walking through Chinatown back home in Philly is the closest I get to international travel, and having Puerto Rican neighbors with chicken coops and playing bongos is the closest I get to the experience of going there.
When people talk about travel, like I said, I am always the one to say “I’ve never even been on a plane.” Surprisingly enough, to people who have traveled it is so common to them, such a right of passage, something that has been a simple opportunity for them that the usual response I get is in disbelief. Usually the first thought for people is not that its because I never had the chance to, that I can’t travel even though I want to, but that I am crazy for choosing not to or that I am afraid to fly. When i say I can't travel, it is not understood. Im not saying that it is wrong for them to have been so fortunate and I am not speaking resentful or jealously, but for me travel is something I won’t be able to do until I’ve earned the means to do it myself. It is something I wish to do in life, to fulfill for myself, through my career path by going to college and hopefully having the future finances to do so. For some people, travel is provided by the success of their parents. I think the biggest reason why most people don’t travel overall is because it is not a free choice, something you can do just because you want to, but it is a privilege to those who can afford it.
Honestly the fact that many Americans do not have passports really does not affect me that much. It does not seem like a real social issue to me. I personally have a passport but then again I do not really consider myself an American although I am. Perhaps the reason does lie with the fact that America is a “melting pot” and you can find aspects of most cultures around the world in the United States. People may think that there is no reason to actually go to Europe, Asia or the Caribbean, when they can just hop over to china town or something like that. They may also be content to believe that what they see around them IS an accurate representation of what is going on around the world. They do not want to believe that they could be horribly misinformed or just ignorant.
Another reason also may be that many Americans are content with their lives in this country. They think that America has all they will ever need. From a young age many Americans have been fed the notion that America is the greatest, freest country on earth, if not the universe. Even though that is probably not true, it is believed and if it is believed then why would you want to spend money and travel to a country that is not as good as or as free as yours. I am a curious person and have traveled to many countries and I know that America is not the greatest country (opinion, but still fact lol). I do not know what country is but I know that every time I travel to a foreign country there is a sense of uncertainty and trepidation that conflicts with that American confidence especially if the country speaks a different language. I think that we should all be more open to traveling and to getting to know other cultures. Everyone who is reading this should definitely get a passport and travel to a foreign country and experience what is like. It will change your perspective a lot. But hey, if you don’t then it’s still not that big of a deal.
I think this is great example of the sociological behavior within a given society. American citizens are brought up in a society where the perception of 'freedom' is widespread and is unarguably everyone's right to have. Every United States citizen has the ability to go obtain a passport at the United States Embassy but the majority of Americans choose not to. This proves how really 'un-free' we really put the American mind negates that possibility by assuming that it is a decision of choice, or it proves how 'free' we are to not go get a passport. No matter what, the limit to our freedom is based upon the characteristics of society as a whole which impacts our individual decisions.
According to the article, the attractive recreational areas, the beautiful beaches, the big cities, along with the negative perceptions we have against other countries limits our interest in traveling abroad. America is so big that traveling within is a vacation in it self bringing a satisfying new diverse experience. This is also an example of the forces around us that shape our decisions. So if everyone is absolutely free to do anything they want, especially in a nation that prides themselves on having this unique ability, why won't more Americans obtain passports in order to explore the amazing features on earth? Its much bigger than any individual person. Its all about the limits we have within a system and how we adjust our behavior as a result in order to fit in the system.
The invisible strings from the American society is such that doesn't put an emphasis on leaving the country. It is all part of culture. Most Americans work throughout their lives and only get a limited amount of vacation time than other cultures with higher cross-country traveling rates. The sociological context of society limits our freedom to make certain decisions no matter how free we think we are. Human beings have the candid ability to naturally fit within any culture they are uncontrollably brought into. We are never completely free form the time we arrive in earth and till the time we leave earth. We will always live with constraints, and the experiences we through in life will determine if we belong in a particular type of society.
When people say that Americans don’t travel as much as other societies, they are generally referring to the other developed nations, usually those in Europe. There are many factors and limitations that affect the thinking of Americans when considering travel that many people don’t realize or don’t connect with each other that comes into play when deciding whether or not to visit another country. First of all, there are many more geological barriers between Americans and the diverse cultures seen around the world. The United States takes up the entire space between the Atlantic coast and the Pacific coast, generally isolating it from all countries but Canada and Mexico. This means that air travel is almost always required, even to get to those two connected countries, as most people don’t live close enough to the borders to just drive to them. The country is simply so large that the amount of travel time daunts most people, as they realize they will at least need to schedule a flight. This is the opposite of Europe, where from any country you could easily drive to another; it’s roughly like driving from state to state in the United States. Even Britain is now connected to continental Europe now with a bridge for driving across, so they can now visit those countries without having to fly. Another large reason for why Americans don’t travel is the expense. As stated above, air travel is usually imperative in these expeditions, and flights aren’t cheap. The cost factor is enough to keep the majority of Americans where they are, working just to make ends meet. The Americans that do have enough money, and time, to travel must also make another decision. They could choose to travel abroad, or they could choose to travel somewhere within the country. The latter is an enticing choice for people, as it is usually cheaper than traveling around the world. Also, since our country is so diverse, many people travel around it just to experience the different areas and subcultures within, which isn’t something they should be judged for instead of traveling for foreign nations. Another reason traveling in the country is appealing is that there is no currency exchange to deal with, or language barrier which people have to deal with. These factors help to make people decide to travel within the states, instead of traveling around to other countries and making that statistic of traveling Americans look any better.
When I read this article, I was not at all surprised by the figures it proposes. I myself have never been out of the country and have not seriously debated it in my lifetime. When they say America is the most ignorant and ill-informed country in the world, it’s because it’s true. We don’t see the importance or cultural relevance until we reach college or beyond. If a high school student is presented with the opportunity to study abroad it may be a truly unforgettable experience, but then again maybe not. My brother took a trip as a high school junior, and although it was a cool experience for him, a landmark such as going to college, I can say without a doubt was more character building and life changing.
When your young you have the opportunity to go places, meaning leaving the country to study abroad, take a class trip, or vacation with family. However some choose just simply not to. People say, they don’t have the money to do a trip like this, but like Tom Petty famously said, the work never ends. So why don’t more Americans leave the country for trips? The article brings up the unique point that we essentially have everything within the county. Enough different places and people exist for us to not have seen everything by the end of our lifetime.
Sam stresses in class the importance of going to other countries because they are way freer than us. Freedom is relative. European and Asian countries can more readily travel because of leisurely time and proximity. Just because 75% of the United Kingdom and 60% of Canada has their passports does not mean they are actively using it. This only means they are freer than Americans in the sense that they can actively exercise their right to travel at the drop of a hat, without having to get a passport. They’re probably coming to the United States to visit anyways. Okay, there’s not statistics to prove that but I digress. I think a major reason for the decline in travel, probably everywhere in the world in the last decade, is the advent of the Internet. A person can be instantly transported to anywhere on the planet circa Google Earth, studying and learning from a distance is the more cost effective and least effort.
I am a very active traveler outside the United States. I go to Mexico every summer with my family. I have also been to Canada and London before in my life. I feel that at such a young age I have already traveled more than a lot of older adults. This article explains how I am outside the norm of society. It explains that most people in the United States have never even been abroad. Most are hesitant to break free of the comfortable society they live in here in the United States. The article gives several other main reasons why people do not leave the country. This first was the fact the United States has a lot of cultural and geographical diversity. You would think most people would travel to Mexico for the hot weather, Canada or Northern Europe for cold weather to ski, London and other European cities to see architecture and culture right? Well the United States has all that. Maybe not to a great extent but no the less it is still present. People don’t need to travel out of the country to find a society in their own country. Another reason is that America is skeptical and ignorant to what is really out in the world beyond the United States. We will buy goods and such from other countries but we are too skeptical to go out and experience where it is all coming from. They also might be scared of what is out there because they are so comfortable with Americas society. Lastly Americans are so work driven and prioritize work above everything else and making money. Most Americans have very strict and important schedules that they don’t have time to take off and travel abroad. I feel if Americans did find the time and found the will that traveling abroad would be healthy for our society as a whole. I think experiencing other societies would help us to enhance and appreciate our own.
It is a real shame that Americans seem averse to travel. I do understand that America itself is a fantastic place, with many different cultures and regions. We are, after all, the Melting Pot. I do love travelling America, and have seen and experienced many different things. I was born and raised in Central New Jersey, and I am accustomed to malls and movie theaters. However, travelling up north an hour to North Jersey is almost a completely different place. Everything seems more laid back and rural, more small town and old school. When I drive out to Penn State, I see all types of places that are nothing like home on a 3 and a half hour drive. And all of this occurs in a very small portion of what is America, so it is not hard to understand the point that people think they can find enough different cultural experiences in our own country.
However, it is ignorant to think that America is all one should ever know. In different countries, things can be so much different it blows the mind. I have been to India, Spain, Denmark, and Dubai amongst many other countries. Every experience is totally different and memorable. People have different customs and act differently. I feel as if the more one experiences, the more worldly and knowledgeable they are. It is important to have knowledge of the world because we are all one large human race, and we are all connected in one way or another. Knowledge of Chinese culture picked up from visiting China could prove to be very useful in business. Similarly, knowledge of Indian customs would be useful in dealing with employees overseas. The NBC TV show “Outsourced” does a great job of pointing out huge cultural differences and how they relate to interactions and relationships across the world, with a comedic twist. Many times, the differences are prominent when the Indian employees come across different American perspectives while attempting to sell American novel products. For example, the concept of gag gifts confounds the workers, while the boss doesn’t truly understand the customs and holidays of his employees.
Mankind is progressing towards a more globalized world, as opposed to a world sectioned into different countries. Eventually, Americans will need to learn to see themselves as one small part to our enormous earth, and integrate with the rest of our fellow human beings
As is known to us all, USA is a large country with the significant prosperities in business, culture, technology and many other places which are all defined as the measurements of the developing-value of a country. As an international student, I am quite aware of another name of America-“ melt pot”- which symbolizes that there are people from different country with different culture in different ritual living in this big land. Because of the sufficient availability of getting familiar with other culture inside the USA, the possibility of travelling aboard in order to enjoy rich cultural and geographic diversity decreases sensitively. Apparently, Americans will not have much extreme desires to travel aboard as people from other countries since they can gain diverse sceneries and satisfy personal wonders just by frequent small trips inside the states. This is the world which the USA has turned out to be and it is just a phenomenon there which all American residents have got used to and have no doubt about its correctness and valuableness but just obey this stable structure to do what they have been shaped to do in a long period. Significantly, according to the society style Americans have possessed, there is an invisible tendency for Americans to enlarge their self-satisfaction about that places where they can have a unique sight and people who they can improve intercultural communication are really abundant so there is no necessity for them to struggle to further enrichments. However, caused by the potential power behind this visible shallow appearance, all the Americans have ignored the reality of what they have known about other country just by avoiding first-hand experience of travelling aboard. It’s easy to understand that only truly travelling across the Great Wall in China step by step can people know the prevalent saying –“You will become a true man only if you stand on the top of the Great Wall.” Although people in USA have seen a large amount of photos about the Great Wall, even if there are models which are highly similar to the true one in appearance, though Americans may also have heard about the saying above from one of their Chinese friend, they don’t have the ability to express what they think about the Great Wall, what they have gained inside their heart after seeing a model in the museum. In another word, Americans can never have capacity in moving either super-grand and successful constructions or supernatural and scarce landscapes from all over the world into USA. Nonetheless, Americans have become too lazy to reshape their ideas towards travelling aboard since the society structure and cognition has a strong agreement on travelling inside country instead of going a board.
(continue)According to the article, I want to emphasize more about the shortage of this automatic tourism system and awareness. Perhaps it seems ridiculous for nowadays Americans to worry about whether they will descend into an inferior position in the global diplomacy or what are valuable and precious things to learn from other countries to benefit USA itself, but the world in Americans’ perspective are really not the same as the actual one. Americans have obviously ignored the fast development and consistent flourishing in other countries but maintained an ugly and perishing appearance like what they are used to be in the past. It is their unconscious self-judgments on other countries that reduce their opportunities traveling aboard which has roughly limit and narrow their vision of the whole globe. On the other hand, the farther USA has exceeded other countries the more difficult to reverse the whole country’s attitudes towards traveling aboard because the structure of society itself has huge and inevitable power in shaping people’s mind of looking at other countries with a super stance. However, the behavior of the society itself is connectively comprised of individuals’ responses to the change of the world but with a slower speed compared to the change of the world itself. As far as I concerned, the rapid development all over the world is occurring all the time and even is speeding up with a considerable accelerate will finally reform the way of Americans’ travelling. It still need time and the society itself will turn out to be a demonstrator to this statement. That’s how society works, people are just characters inside this river without choice of whether to follow the main stream over.
Ignorance is bliss. I'm taking a concurrent philosophy course this semester that examines ethics and the topic of this article is merely an example of one of the topics we discussed in class. When one becomes complacent with their present circumstances, there is no longer a drive or 'will' to step out of that realm into something that may seem a little different. The other 70% of the Americans from that poll are probably victims of this circumstance, and reluctantly I must say that even I am a part of that statistic.
I grew up in New York City, one of the central places in America that has a collection of many different cultures and ethnicities. The statement regarding Little Italy and Chinatown rang bells in my head as I remembered an experience I had o a field trip when I was in high school. My class took a trip to China Town to visit a Buddhist temple and have lunch. Upon visiting the temple, I was awed at the rituals that were being practiced because of what I learned in the media. I've seen many shows on televisions depicting the Buddha religion, and upon leaving the temple I felt even more amazed to know that there existed more extreme variations of the religion in different countries. Insult to injury, we went to a huge restaurant that served better Chinese food than I've ever tasted around my neighborhood. In comparison to the small time shops on the upper-west side, it more or less put them to shame. This sparked me to think about how it would feel to actually eat a bowl of beef and shrimp in China in a modern day house hold.
This experience provided the catalyst to spark interest in foreign countries, but sadly for the majority of Americans, instead of sparking that interest it solidifies a demographic within that area that they may visit as an option. Logically, the question does make sense. "Why would I visit another country and pay $2000 – $5000 in expenses when I can ride a train for $2.50 and visit the culture in my own state?" Though logical, the question does pose many ignorant accusations as well. America has the reputation of being one of the most unaware countries on earth because of so much diversity that exist.
I don’t think our country is very free if only 30% of the US population has a passport. One invisible string here may be that we have so much to offer us here that many other countries do not. For example we have many different cultural people here, so we have cultural diversity. Also, like the article mentions we have the mountains, the prairies, etc. In addition we have a better off economy than other places, and not everyone can schedule vacations out of the country because their work is very important to them. Another invisible string is the idea that it may not be safe out there. For example we’re in the middle of a war, a lot of people don’t want to travel at a risky time like this. Also, were not very knowledgeable of other things going on in other countries, for example: Egypt. No one wants to travel into other countries in a time of danger. Also, after September 11th 2001, many people do not like to fly. That is definitely an invisible string; people don’t like to fly places like out of the country, because terrorism may always seem like a threat to them. Now, there is another issue such as the new airports that may encourage people not to fly. Now, to secure the airports more effectively; they have placed machines that see right through your clothing in order for you to board an airplane. A lot of people are discomforted by this; they feel as if that is violating their rights to privacy. An invisible string to those who don’t travel, would be that their home to them seems so safe; and they’ve heard many bad or dangerous things about other countries; that it is forcing them to never travel out of the country. Overall the comfort the US citizens feel, keeps them here. They feel as if everything they want and need is right inside the United States; and that there is no need for them to ever want to or need to fly out of the country. Invisible strings hold most of the population back from the want to travel.
The most prevalent reason I see in the article about why Americans do not travel is that it is quite expensive to do so for a large amount of the population. This is the primary reason that I do not have a passport and have never left the east coast of the United States. The article states that the average trip to Europe costs $2,708 per person, but for a family of four this would cost over 10 thousand dollars. This is just not likely feasible for the 70% of the Americans that do not have passports. It is a shame that it is so expensive because most of Americans will never experience other cultures, which help put our culture into perspective.
Also, the work culture that has manifested itself in this country is also detrimental to our experience of other countries. Striving to attain more money rather than taking time to relax and experience the world seems like it leads to a more depressing culture. As Americans, we seem to be afraid to break the cycle and experience more than the usual agenda.
Our fear of the unknown creates significant roadblocks to exploring the world also. We are presented with frightening images on the news about horrible things that happen in other countries. This leads to misconceptions about other cultures as we see them as barbaric, even though we never experience those countries.
The diverse cultures present in this country also lead us to stay close to home and safety while experiencing other cultures. We could make excuses like “Why go all the way to Mexico when we can just go to Taco Bell.” The fact that people from every country in the world immigrated to this country has caused all of the world’s culture to manifest itself to some degree in this country.
We need to break free from all of our misconceptions about the world and open our minds to travel and experience other countries first-hand. In essence we are not totally free as we are trapped mentally and physically in our own homeland.
I definitely believe that traveling and experiencing the world is an essential part of living and maturing as you grow older; however, many people do not have that opportunity. Of course, anybody could stop everything they’re doing and just fly to Australia or Japan, but most people are tied down to the intercontinental United States by invisible strings and other factors. Some of these “strings” could originate from the expectations of modern society that if you want to succeed in life, you have to work hard and that if you’re taking a break, someone else out there is working and getting ahead of you. Like the CNN article states, our society has made it much more difficult to take a vacation, especially one overseas. For instance, my brother was currently promoted at his place of work, yet he still only has about seven vacation days for the entire year. This number, which some may expect to rise quickly or to a more significant figure later in his career, will increase by one week every five years. So it will take him fifteen years to gain one month of vacation time. To me, those figures are ridiculous. It seems as though our society expects us to graduate high school and maybe after one or two years of college, give up any vacation time and to work nonstop for forty or fifty years. We are so used to having two and a half months of summer to relax and enjoy life, but as soon as we enter into higher education, all this time is expected to be used for studying, working, and preparing yourself for the life ahead. Then, once you enter into this life which you’ve worked so hard to attain, you have to work even harder to keep it. Ultimately, our society has made it much more difficult to travel abroad. The other perspectives listed in the CNN article definitely contribute to making it more difficult for citizens in the U.S. to travel, but the I just discussed resonates much more to me since I’m a college student, and this upcoming summer will be the first of many whose entirety will be spent working. With work now scheduled for the summer and school work that takes over my time during the academic years, I can’t see myself in the near future going on any vacations. Hopefully, at one point, our society will ease the decision to take an extended vacation, allowing us to expand our cultural horizons and experience things that should be experienced in our twenties, in my opinion.
In class, Professor Richards always tells us that how our behaviors, choices and opinions are shaped and affected by invisible strings in our society. However, this time, how “not-so-invisible” structure shapes us is mentioned in this article. I always wondered what exactly invisible strings are but through the story “Why More American Don’t Travel around”, I could catch a glimpse of what he always tries to teach us. Every time I go to the World Conversation website and read the blogs, I get surprised and impressed at the same time. Knowing that everything around me, my behaviors, choices and opinions are so connected to our society and sociology and how it teaches me to look at things from a different point of view (sociological perspectives) always blows my mind.
I was kind of a person who always said “I don’t care what it means. I don’t even wanna know!” when my friends and I were talking about some stuff before I took this course. I think I rejected ‘thinking’. Maybe I was bored of my way of thinking and looking at things so knowing that we can also connect this article to sociology also surprised me in a good way. I found this article so interesting because I had been thinking that American people are indifferent toward other cultures. However, actually they are not. This country is composed of many cultures and many races. In other words, those facts and people’s various backgrounds comprise America. In their daily life, they come in contact with other cultures. Therefore, as written in this article, for them, they do not need to go to other countries to experience their cultures.
This “not-so-invisible” fact can explain the reason why the American do not go abroad very much. At this point, sociological way of thinking helped me look at and think about things in a different way. I wrote that understanding invisible strings is hard and vague but I interpreted that everything happens for a reason by knowing how “not-so-invisible” strings shape us. Moreover, ‘a lot of fears’ is mentioned as one of the reasons in this article. I just learned about fear in today’s class so I also found it interesting too. As learned in class, if we can stop feeling fear to the things that we do not need to, we can get more freedom and enjoy it more.
It is not surprising to hear that only 30% of Americans have passports. Quite honestly, I am surprised that it is as high as 30%. I would imagine that the large majority of these passport holders only have traveled between Canada and Mexico as mentioned in the article. In addition , I am sure that the number of Americans that have traveled within the United States is relatively low also. This can be seen by the distribution of so many different American cultures scattered thorough out the United States from the deep south to New York city to the Midwest. I think there are a couple reasons as to why American don't travel much. First of all, traveling costs money, of which I think traveling can become quite expensive – especially the cost of air travel. Also, since the United States has so many different regions within itself, many people find it is easier to take a vacation nationally. Something that I did find extremely interesting was the average number of vacation days an American receives, and how much less it is than that of the people from the United Kingdom and New Zealand. Additionally, how it is favored to take off a year prior to big life changes like that of after college. If you tried to do that in the United States, you would be questioned as far as your commitment with that company. I certainly agree that the mentality of most American is work, work, work . I believe this can be reflected in the successfulness of our country in the past century . Another reason as to why I think Americans don't travel is the way our society is set up. The way that products and services are advertised to us. It has become so easy to use the internet to purchase thing, and experience things without leaving the comfort of our home. Adding to this, news and information has become easily accessible also. Most of the news, if not all of it on TV, or the newspaper is negative news. So I am sure people would become more reluctant to travel because all they see is bad things happening around the world.
After reading this article I was surprised to found out how such a low percentage of Americans have passports. Like Matthew Kepnes said that it was weird to break out of the norm, is very true for a lot of Americans and people I know. Many people are frightened to leave the country because they don’t know what is out there, even though this would make me more curious and want to travel more. Many Americans are skeptical because they believe in stereotypes, for example being kidnapped in Brazil by taking the wrong taxicab. This can go along with the fear of flying that was brought onto us post 9/11. This is very unlikely and shouldn’t deter you from exploring countries outside of your own. Another reason that Americans don’t travel as much as other nations is because of the demanding work schedule for many employees, countries like France get about 3 times as much vacation time as their American counterparts. Americans would rather get that extra dollar than travel in most cases. Yes, everyone has the same “freedom “to travel wherever and whenever they please, so is it that Americans just chose not to travel more than most other countries? The only explainable difference between is that they are brought up in a different societal situation where travel abroad in America is not encouraged. This is not to say that Americans are going around saying “Do not travel to different countries,” but it is a difference in how children are raised. In the United States travel abroad has never been popular, but almost every parent makes the trip to go see the Grand Canyon with their child as opposed to a child in England who goes to see the Eifel Tower. In this scenario the American child, who is now a parent will then take his or her children to go see the Grand Canyon instead of the pyramids in Egypt because as a child he didn’t travel abroad so to make it seem normal they put their children in the same situation. And this cycle continues and will continue through generations of Americans until travel abroad becomes popular.
Living in America as a semi-international student, I often feel that it is strange how people in American like to stay in America and don’t travel as much as others around the world. Since I was young, my family traveled around the world, moving from place to place for a few years at a time. I have experienced living in almost every continent and have experienced the most fascinating people and cultures every new place I had been to. One thing that was similar in those places was that everyone else seemed to be as keen in traveling as my family had been; most people in Europe and in Asia travel to many parts of the world for vacation, studying abroad and just to seek a new place to live in; therefore, the culture was very diverse and every aspect of life was very integrated and influenced by neighboring lands. However in America, there is this unregulated atmosphere that is purely American- despite America being a melting pot of diverse races and cultures, I feel that the American culture is so very dominating that all of these people and cultures just blend in the background and become unnoticed after a period of time.
(continued)These people who travel to America are pretty much required to “fit in” to society in order to survive in America, however in many cases, Americans can survive in other countries without trying as hard. For example, for the Americans that travel to Korea or other Asian countries, there are very well known English villages and major cities that speak English; this allows Americans to survive in Korea without having to learn a new language or accept a whole new culture. There are the same old restaurants, shopping stores and whatever else you could imagine within the cities. Since America is so dominating in its culture, I feel that not many Americans feel the necessity to or even the incentive to travel so far to an unfamiliar land with unfamiliar people. Another large factor is that English is a widely spoken language all around the world and therefore those people feel more comfortable visiting America; whereas Americans rarely learn any other language in school than Spanish, German or French, therefore are less prone to travel to other countries.
It is certainly surprising to find out that only 30% of Americans own a passport. This number might be increasing, but it is still very low compared to other countries.
I could certainly agree regarding the parts where the article mentioned that it is hard for us to 'step out' of our comfort zone, of our norm, out of our culture, out of our country. Americans would choose not to travel out of the country as everything that they could possibly think of (from beaches to snow) are just right there in America. So it is certainly not necessary for one to spend extra money to travel into a foreign country simply to enjoy something that is available in the US itself. As Sam has mentioned, these are the not so 'invisible' strings that are affecting the Americans to not travel out of the country.
Other than that, I could certainly second the part where the article mentioned about how other countries are portrayed very negatively in the media. This has certainly strengthened the reasons for why an American should NOT travel out to other 'dangerous' countries. Why not just stay there in America to travel safely? Once again, the strings are at work; this is a great example of where we put our fear at the wrong place; fear of something that is not completely true, or not true at all. I am sure that the negative news about a number of countries that we see in the media is not happening 24/7. For most of the time, I have heard that the bad news that happened only lasted for about a day in that country, but is still continuously portrayed in the media here for maybe more than a week; leaving us this thought that the bad event has lasted for over a week when it merely lasted for a day.
Coming to the US myself as an international student gives me the benefit of having a different view from the native speakers. Despite hearing about other countries such as Japan and the US of having such great technologies and economic power, my family was not the traveling type. We also seldom traveled within our own small country as well. I am well aware of the factors that did not allow us to travel much, but the claim that other countries have more tendencies to travel compared to the citizens of the US is not all that true. It really does go back to sociology; the factors and forces that greatly influence our lives and how we live it.
Despite having a father as a pilot, and a mother as an ex-stewardess, many might think that our family would have traveled all around the world. But it is the direct opposite. Once again, sociology comes into play, even though many might think this is completely unbelievable. I could understand my parents work, where they would travel the world during their work hours, and prefer to spend time with their family, in the comfort of our home, during their time off. It is not really that complicated to understand this. However, society usually views my family in a very different way as they would expect the whole family to have circled the world.
I am sure that my family is not what most 'pilot' families would be, but I could certainly understand the reasons behind it, and accept them without hate.
Coming back to the article, I am sure that many should be well aware that America does indeed has almost everything in terms of entertainment and traveling. Even so, I hope that many are also aware of other cultures that are out there to be discovered.
I have been traveling as much as I can whenever the break arrives. Even though I could certainly say that traveling is something out of the norm for me to do, especially in a foreign country, but I have set my foot out of my comfort zone, and has enjoyed every bit of experience I have gained. How about you?