Erin and Kattie unpack travel dysmorphia: the feeling that you haven't traveled enough, especially compared to others.

• Travel Dysmorphia Is a Real Thing—Do You Have It?
• This Is the Perfect Vacation for You, Based on Your Zodiac Sign

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Written and Hosted by Erin Hynes

Produced by Kattie Laur

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What are you talking about?

Well, hello there, Erin.

Hello.

Happy May.

It is officially the summer.

Did you just call May the summer?

Yes, I consider May summer.

This is how you know, in Canada, we're really desperate.

Once spring comes around.

It's not spring.

Spring is only half of March and April, in my opinion.

And then May rolls around, and I'm like, it's summer.

It's officially summer.

I'll allow this.

So what are your upcoming travel plans then for, I guess, this summer?

Ooh, we have some exciting stuff on for the summer.

Well, I was just in Vancouver, so that sort of kicked it off.

We're going to Newfoundland in July, which I am so excited for.

I'm so excited for this.

Yeah.

And then we're doing some stuff around Ontario, like North Bay, Thunder Bay.

We'll just be going up north to, like, hike and camp and see family.

Then we're going to Halifax.

At the end of the summer, we're going to Europe, to Sicily and the Netherlands and maybe somewhere else.

We're not quite sure yet.

Oh, my gosh.

Kay.

This is so homey.

I love all this domestic travel and then going to, like, your home countries.

This is so nice.

Yeah.

Oh, my gosh.

What a fulfilling year of travel for you.

I'm so excited for you.

Yeah, I'm stoked.

Okay, So I was looking for some fun stories for us to cover today, and I came across this article on Vice.

It's called this is the perfect vacation for you based off your zodiac sign.

Oh, okay.

So you are an Aquarius.

I'm a Libra.

I'm curious what you think it's gonna say based off of your own knowledge of your own zodiac sign.

Aaron's not like a horoscope girly.

I'm a horoscope girly.

Now I'm just thinking about.

I know so many Aquarius people, so I'm thinking about where they travel to.

I actually think it would be quite different from how I travel.

Okay, interesting, because I read yours, and I was like, lol.

This is Aaron.

Oh, really?

Okay.

Okay, you ready?

So Aquarius is all about extraordinary solo travel experiences.

You probably won't catch them at popular resorts or tourist attractions.

Quote, Aquarians like to step outside their comfort zone, and they want a holiday that is unconventional, inspiring, and off the beaten path, says this astrologist.

They love independence, so a solo trip is best, where they can explore at their own pace while making Friends along the way in destinations that are full of locals, not tourists.

How do you feel about this?

I mean, I don't love the phrasing.

I don't identify with the way they phrased it and presented it.

But like, I read off the beaten Path and I was like, Aaron's gonna cringe.

I mean, there's nuggets of truth in there if you apply it to me.

And I wouldn't say I'm not like a. I'm not a hardcore solo traveler like I was before I was in a long term relationship, but I certainly was a solo traveler and I do still solo travel, as does Luke.

And Luke is also Aquarius.

That is interesting.

It's interesting because it applies to both of us because we met because we were both traveling the same way.

And maybe that's why you guys are also so good at traveling together because you also are on your travels, like to do separate things here and there and then you come back together and do stuff.

Yeah.

So there you go.

You're a classic Aquarius traveler.

Okay, here's mine.

Libras are the romantics of the zodiac.

So they're seeking sensual couple retreats or cozy getaways to share with their partner.

Did you guys book a private onsen by chance?

You know, we did.

Quote, Libras appreciate romance, balance and beauty, so they would love a holiday that is elegant and stylish while allowing them to relax and connect with their partner.

From romantic candle at dinners to wine tastings in the countryside, Libras want meaningful conversation and cultural immersion in beautiful surroundings.

So it's basically calling me like a romantic basic.

I actually think this is true though.

I think so because like I'm.

I'm singing specifically of like the way Mark proposed to you.

It was just so like over the top romantic.

And Luke and I would never like we got engaged through one conversation between us.

You guys are way more into like, let's make things like more showy and romantic, which is a good thing.

We probably should do more of that.

Well, Mark is a Pisces and I think the whole thing around Pisces is that they're sort of like charismatic peacemakers.

And it's really funny because I think our travel style is a reflection of our horoscopes for sure.

Because Mark and I like to.

I definitely like, really like traveling with Mark for sure.

Personally, I prefer traveling with him than solo.

But I also have never solo travel, so I don't know this for sure.

But we just have a solid travel style.

We're Chill.

And it always goes really well.

And I.

We like to do things together, so, like, it totally checks out.

And it's really funny that, like, our Japan trip was a balance of just, like, these intimate moments of just being together and doing stuff and then more exciting things.

So it's.

It's funny.

Yeah.

Okay.

So I truly came here to talk to you about something called travel dysmorphia that I also found written about on Vice.

So I wanted to talk about a little bit.

So my question for you is, when you look at, like, your lifetime experience of travel, how do you feel about it?

Sometimes?

Like, it was a fever dream, but I feel grateful for it.

Like, I always tell Lucas, if I got hit by bus tomorrow, I would die knowing that I did things that I wanted to do and experience the world, like, in the way that I wanted to experience it.

So I feel very grateful for that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

This is exactly the answer I expected.

Okay.

I think you have a very healthy perspective on your experiences and the travel you've been able to do and your privilege.

So this research that came out in September found that nearly 7 in 10Americans suffer from travel dysmorphia.

What do you think this is?

I'm curious what you think this might be.

I honestly have no idea.

Travel dysmorphia isn't an actual diagnosable disorder like body dysmorphia.

If you're familiar with that, that is a real thing.

This is sort of just a phrasing for this phenomenon.

And basically, it refers to a preoccupation with travel or in this case, a lack thereof.

So people with travel dysmorphia basically feel as though that they haven't traveled nearly enough and.

And can't stop comparing their life to the travels that they see online.

The study conducted saw that only 10% of Americans feel that they've actually achieved their travel goals.

What is your reaction to this?

It makes me sad, to be honest, to hear that, because, first of all, I don't think travel is something that we should view as, like, a goal.

And it makes me sad to think that people can feel that way about something that, like, is such a privilege.

And when, like, you should ideally feel happiness and fulfillment, like, in your home life.

This is what came up in the article, is that, like, the more findings that they were doing around this basically showed that travel has become more of, like, a milestone for people and like, a marker of fulfillment and success.

And we've talked about this on a bit on the show already before, but there is, like, modern travel is more emotionally tied to your personal success these days.

It's, like, viewed as an accomplishment to have traveled.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

The author of the article said that they kind of joked this sounds like yet another consequence of social media, which you and I were talking a little bit about before we hopped on this call.

But basically, yeah, people just feel ashamed that they don't have access to life's luxuries and haven't hit these travel milestones.

And, like, seven out of 10Americans is, like, pretty significant, I feel like.

So.

I do think.

So we'll talk about social media because I do think that definitely factors in.

But I also want to flag.

I think this has to do with the general growth and accessibility to tourism.

It's become, like, firmly middle class.

And I think that there's classism wrapped up in this, where it's like a signal of your financial situation whether or not you're able to travel, especially internationally.

And I do think that has to do because, like, in, like, the 50s, you only traveled if you were a wealthy person.

But these days, like, it is, like, much more accessible financially, but.

But still not, like, yeah, this article.

Said that some of the most common obstacles preventing people from traveling because it's like, all right, well, what's really stopping you from traveling?

63% Said it was the cost, just the cost of travel.

Because I think this clearly points to the fact that there is a missing middle here.

Like, high class, low class is getting more and more separated.

Then 19% said work commitments, 19% said family responsibilities, and 18% said logistical fatigue.

So the real, the main reason is costs these days, even if travel gets more accessible, it's.

The costs are just bananas at this point.

And, like, look at airline costs and fuel and all of that stuff.

So this article was very interesting to me and there's more stats around social media, but I looked it up on the Internet too, to see if, like, people are talking about this.

And I found a Reddit, a subreddit.

It was on R Solo Travel.

And somebody said it's a whole thread called depression due to the inability to travel.

And they said, does anyone else here feel depressed when you can't travel for extended periods of time due to any personal commitments or financial reasons?

How do you deal with it?

I thought researching about places on my list might make me feel better.

But it's making it worse.

And so somebody called this the stationary blues, which I thought was, like, kind of cute but also sad.

And then they said what you pointed to.

Whenever I get the stationary blues, I try to keep in mind that travel is an insane luxury that only a few, a select few in humanity can afford.

And that being deprived or unable to indulge in a luxury ultimately leaves me feeling grateful for what I do have and what I'm able to do.

And then somebody else says, this is the definition of a rich person problem.

Oh, 100%, yeah.

But I feel for this person because it is true.

We are inundated with it online.

This is why, like, people probably don't know, but Lucas, like, is not on social media.

And part of it is that he's like, I get too sad when I look at social media, even though I know I shouldn't be sad.

This is the thing, and it's not necessarily travel related, but I definitely, a few years ago, like, went through my Instagram and unfollowed, like, a whole bunch of like, celebrities and influencers and stuff because I just found that I was comparing my life to them way too much.

And it was not that I was like, absolutely changing my life to try and be these people, but you get into this brain mindset of just feeling inadequate in some capacity.

And so I was like, I need to just get these people off my feed so that I just stop thinking about this.

Comparison is the thief of joy.

It truly is.

And I think that social media is such an engine for comparison.

It's truly all it is.

I think about this a lot.

Tell me more about why it's evil.

I've had people comment to me that all you're doing is making people feel fomo, like when you post about your travels.

I've like, ruminated on this a lot and it really bothers me to think about that because it is true to a degree.

So according to this survey, 47% of Gen Z said influencers and YouTube content influences their travel dysmorphia.

And 55% reported that social media makes them feel like they're falling behind in life.

That's so sad.

And obviously I think for Gen Z, who grew up with social media, this is like, extremely toxic.

It's been, it's been informing their brain development.

Like, well, yeah, and I was thinking about this because, like, when I started backpacking, when I was.

The first time I backpacked, I was 19 or 20, I didn't have access to any, like, social media where I was seen people backpack.

It was like this.

Most people around me were like, what are you doing?

I feel like it's much more normalized now.

Yes.

Yeah, it feels like when you.

When I've talked to you about your solo travels, when you were in your early 20s, what informed those travel decisions was really, like, what your parents had told you about their experience?

It was literally just my parents, I.

Think, about a friend of mine when we were in our early 20s.

She was traveling solo all the time, and it wasn't really informed by any.

She was also an Aquarius, but it wasn't informed by anything that we were seeing on social media.

These were just things that she wanted to do.

I will tell you, there was one Facebook group, and some people will know, it was called Girls Love Travel.

Yes.

This Facebook group I'm pretty sure still exists.

But it, like, as they always do, it grew.

It just, like, exploded and became, like, monetized somehow.

But in the early days of Girls Love Travel, I was in there, like, at 19, 20, and that was like, my only exposure to, I guess, like, inspo, like, online inspo for travel.

Because when I started traveling, like, I think Instagram existed, but I didn't join Instagram till, like, my mid-20s.

I think, personally, this travel dysmorphia feeling or feeling like I haven't hit all my travel goals yet, I feel like I definitely identify that within some capacity.

The only thing is, I don't exactly know what my travel goals are, are, other than just, like, certain places that I'd like to visit.

And I feel this, like, anxiety around urgency to do that only because of the state of the world.

Not to, like, hit milestones faster, but to be like, oh, if you wait longer, like, California might be underwater then, or something like that.

You know what I mean?

Last chance tourism.

It's last chance tourism.

I don't think that what I feel is travel dysmorphia, but I would say that I do feel FOMO pretty often.

Let's say you've only visited half the places you visited.

Do you think you might feel it then?

Oh, you mean because I have a higher volume of travel experiences that I feel it less potentially, yeah.

And I think this is connected to privilege as well, because I have had access to travel my whole life, so it has never been out of reach for me.

I hate to say this because it sounds.

I don't know.

I take issue with people saying this, but I think it is true to some degree that I intentionally built a life that made travel accessible to Me, Lucas and I have made many decisions financially that have maintained our access to travel.

So that factors in.

But at the foundation of it, it's privilege, for sure.

Mm.

I was thinking about your role as a social media content creator and I was gonna ask you about, like, how you reckon and balance this.

I don't know if you feel responsibility to this, but, like, this is if people are feeling some type of way on social media, then like, obviously, as you mentioned, you feel like as a social media content creator, you're like, oh my God, like, I don't wanna be contributing to this, but at the same time, I'm can't help but think there's a bit of a difference between, like the kind of content that you're putting out, which is people follow you for travel content.

Like, they know that they're gonna come and seek travel content on your page, versus more of like a lifestyle influencer who's not only talking about the travels that they're doing, but also like the products that they use for skin care and like general lifestyle, you know.

So I think there's a difference between sort of more niche content that people can select and choose versus, like, more aspirational, I guess.

But yeah, I'm curious how you think about this.

Yeah, I intentionally try not to post content that is meant to just make people feel FOMO or aspire to visiting a place.

I try to make most of my content educational to some point, which I do think helps.

And I also don't travel as much as your average travel influencer.

And so I'm not constantly posting recent trips because I don't go on as many.

But this brings me to a point that I think is really important to flag that everyone should remember, which is that if you are following a travel influencer, especially one who is doing it full time, it's so important to remember it is their job and they are not paying for their travels most of the time.

I would say 30 to 50% of the travel I do now is subsidized in some way.

And that also factors in, like, to the privilege piece.

Like, I have found myself in this job and it has made travel more accessible to me.

I would not be traveling as much as I'm able to, especially around Canada, if I didn't have this job.

So I think, like, it's easy to forget that when you're watching influencers.

I especially, especially because so many people don't properly tag their content like as sponsored, so it just looks like they're just like off traveling the World, like living this dream life.

But they're working.

It's important to remember they're working.

And as someone who's done it, I know it looks amazing, but like, it's tiring work.

Like, it can be exhausting to do that full time.

Like, I often wonder if I would want to do it full time because traveling and creating content full time really is.

It drains you to be doing that.

Just to wrap this up, this idea around like, dysmorphia and Gen Z is really interesting because I did a little bit more digging and this is like, not the only phenomenon.

There's another phenomenon called money dysmorphia that I think is like pretty much tied to this idea.

And basically lots of Gen Z and millennials feel this money dysmorphia, which feels like they just don't have enough money and they're never going to hit their money goals.

But what they find is that a lot of these people are actually financially better off than they realize.

And it's just because there is this like internalized feeling of unsafety around money and that people are just like, there's a hyper vigilance and people are very worried that they just aren't hitting their financial goals or they just have warped views of their finances and aren't able to give themselves enough credit for the things that they already have or have already experienced.

And I think this is so tied into the travel side of things too.

Yeah.

Where it's like, this is you.

There's tons of like financial influencers online.

There's tons of people showcasing rich lifestyles and very high goals around financial goals.

And it's so tied into travel too.

And it's, it's so interesting that it's.

Late stage capitalism doing it.

It's late stage capitalism and social media working together as best friends.

But it is very true because, you know, like, one of my closest friends, he works in London and he works in like luxury fashion.

And we've talked about this.

He's told me the demographic of people buying luxury goods, specifically luxury clothing, has gone down.

There are younger people, a lot of Gen zers buying these goods.

And he was saying to me, they can't afford it.

But because it's become so normalized to see people wearing luxury designer clothes online.

Gucci slides.

Yeah.

Gen zers will work a job for a whole year just to buy those Gucci slides.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Whereas, like, and I was, we were talking about this when he and I were in high school, we would never.

We were shopping, like secondhand Clothes like there.

It never would have crossed my mind, but I also wasn't inundated with this content when I was in high school.

School, absolutely.

Yeah.

So I don't know what else to say about this other than it's sad.

I was like trying to find a happy note for this because I was gonna, I saw this article and was like haha, travel dysmorphia.

And then I was like oh no, this is actually like pretty devastating.

But I don't know, I hope this changes.

And I think it's like very clear the impact of social media and all of this stuff.

I, I think the takeaway for me here is like how important it is to, to put intention into how you engage with social media and put boundaries around it.

This is something that I do a lot more of for myself lately, not spending time like intentionally not spending time on social media and it has like made a difference in my life for sure.

I've put a timer on my phone so once it's 6 o' clock pm up until 8am, I'm not allowed to access my email because that was giving me a lot of anxiety.

Well, we live in a world now where people have, people have access to us all the time.

Like that stresses me out too.

Like I stress me out so much.

When people are constantly pinging me, like texting me and I feel bad because even friends sometimes I just like don't have the energy to respond because I'm so overwhelmed by like all the texts.

Same.

Absolutely the exact same on my part.

Yeah, you can expect a response from me in three to five business days.

Yeah, it's so bad.

Well, like I'll always respond if it's important, but sometimes, and this is like the antithesis to who I am, like I was talking with a friend about this.

I've always been a quick responder because I have like the need to please people.

So if someone needs me, I feel like I have to respond as soon as I can.

And I've always been like that.

It's only in the last year that I've become slower to respond because of like my paralysis over like all the messages.

I absolutely relate to this.

I absolutely relate to this.

Yeah.

So yeah, I would say if you're feeling travel dysmorphia, I'm sorry, it sucks.

This is all a result of late stage capitalism and social media.

And just remember, tech giants want to ruin your life and so embrace the wonderful moments that you do have in doing the exciting things that make you happy.

So hope that helps.

Ra.