WiFi, good or bad?

A Huffington Post article (What WiFi is doing to Backpacker Culture) made me think. Was asking myself some questions. Does wifi in hostels, or everywhere, in fact, change the travelers habits? Worst : is it a threat to backpaker culture?

I started going in hostels before wifi was everywhere. You would pay for a 15 minutes internet connexion and move on to do something else. We would play cards with stangers to kill some time. We would socialize because we had nothing else to do.

With time, it became almost impossible to travel without a compter or an iPad. So what?

In Valentina Jovanovski's article, it is written that hostels are more and more full of people doing nothing but looking at their computer screen. True. I am one of those, sometimes. Because it is a simple way to book a flight, a train ticket or a hostel. Because I want to keep in touch with friends and family. Or simply because I don't feel like talking to strangers. So!

If it's true that it doesn't help with human relationships, wifi is definitely an asset. A hostel without wifi is a hostel that is stuck in the past. And nobody wants to stay in the past.

So what is it we can do to encourage people to talk to each other? Nothing! Almost! Because it belongs to everyone to choose how they want to travel. With or without a computer, if one wishes to socialize, he needs to want to do it. Still, in some places, common rooms are so nice that people will start chatting anyway. Huge rooms with a small amount of seats are too common. Choosing a small hostel is usually a better bet.

I don't feel guilty to be connected 15 minutes a day when I travel. I prefer meeting strangers than sending e-mails to those I'm trying to take a distance from. And if I don't find any good mate in the hostel, I'll find them somewhere else.

The challenge will be to socialize those who watch movies in streaming mode or play games online all day long when they travel. There is alway an exception.

So go read that article and share what you think with me.