
Turning Instagram into a Radically Unfiltered Travel Guide - dpflan
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/turning-instagram-into-a-radically-unfiltered-travel-guide.html
======
tuna-piano
Wow, like others, I skimmed this and had no idea what the author was trying to
say. So I skimmed a bit more carefully, and still don't understand what the
point of the article is - very frustrating.

But I did learn something new: Instagram has pages that show the pictures
tagged at certain locations.

For example, the article references Goree Island, a place with a terrible
history. Here is the instagram page:
[https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/745847284/](https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/745847284/)

The volume of pictures is high (20+ a day for well known locations), and it is
super cool for me to see pictures at these places every day.

Just a random assortment of places and their recent pictures:

Willis / Sears Tower, Chicago:
[https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/263485600/](https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/263485600/)

Tianmen Sauare, Beijing:
[https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/215668553/](https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/215668553/)

Pyongyang, North Korea:
[https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/246148050/](https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/246148050/)

Cosmopolitan Hotel, Las Vegas:
[https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/866213/](https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/866213/)

Salento, Colombia:
[https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/215264674/](https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/215264674/)

~~~
jedberg
Oh internet, so stereotypical. Of course the "Top Posts" for most of these is
pictures of attractive women (and the occasional man). The notable exception
being North Korea.

~~~
themartorana
I don't understand why this is a bad thing on the PC list. They are _pictures_
to be clear, and attractive pictures tend to have more likes. We're also
humans, and being attracted to other humans is in our DNA, so, we should stop
shaming people for it.

Besides, it's only 9 posts, and they aren't all of "hot chicks." The (argh!!)
used-to-be-chronological list starts above the fold. This seems silly to be
upset by.

~~~
tedmiston
> The (argh!!) used-to-be-chronological list starts above the fold.

I'm pretty confident that the photo lists on tags, etc are still strictly
chronological. It's just timelines that have changed.

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mxuribe
So the point is that one can use the more visually-centric social media
platforms to do a bit of R&D prior to travelling; that's cool, good idea. I
especially like the note on:

    
    
        "This approach also affords a window into cultural insights 
         I might not get other­wise. The year before, in Morocco, a 
         group of friends and I were unsure how best to dress when 
         walking around a small town outside Tangier — we wanted to 
         be especially respectful because we were visiting during 
         Ramadan — so we browsed local Instagram posts until we had 
         a sense of what was appropriate..."
       

I think I'll try this for my next travel.

~~~
pc86
The correct answer is to dress as you would dress any other day in any other
approximate location. Why should someone else's beliefs influence their
behavior to such an extent?

~~~
SamBam
You have every right to dress however you want.

However, if you wear shorts, t-shirt and Tevas in a marketplace in Morocco,
they will think of you as a clueless tourist, and treat you accordingly.

(And if you wear a burka in France they will fine you and tell you to take it
off.)

Having a sense of what the locals wear shows respect. I wouldn't walk into the
Vatican without a shirt on, or an Amish farm wearing short-shorts.

------
state
I have no idea what this article is trying to get across, but I can share one
thing I use Instagram location search for: surf conditions.

There are a few spots (that will remain nameless) I like to surf that are
kinda in the middle of nowhere. Wind forecasts for them are usually off, and
it's a big commitment to drive there myself just to find it ripped up by the
wind.

These spots are, however, really popular for tourists driving down the coast.
It's really easy to search Instagram, find a bunch of selfies in front of the
ocean, and know what the wind was doing ~30m ago.

~~~
dpflan
That's cool, and that is what the article is trying to get across - using
Instagram (and other sources) to assess the (near current) state of a
location. A dedicated webcam or drone could be useful here too (or even errant
Pokemon Go players with GoPros? :))

~~~
state
For most well known spots there's [http://surfline.com](http://surfline.com).
Drones is an interesting idea. I suppose we're not quite there yet.

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personlurking
In reference to the Green Book, which I just had learned about last week, the
US had so-called "sundown towns" [1] where it was ill-advised for people of
color to be out after sundown.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sundown_town)

~~~
tedmiston
Sundown towns to some degree still exist. Maybe not so much that they are
unsafe after dark, but that they're still 95+% white and intolerance still
exists.

Waverly, OH is one example —
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly,_Ohio](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Waverly,_Ohio)

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ape4
I am planning a trip. So this is interesting to me. The photos for my
destination are telling me something but I'm not sure what. There's hardly any
text.

------
tedmiston
I recently found the strange little town of Marfa, TX on Instagram.

[https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/214761100/](https://www.instagram.com/explore/locations/214761100/)

------
tedmiston
> What I see there is wildly unfiltered

Actually, what you see there is _heavily_ filtered.

------
btbuildem
Wow this could use a tl;dr .. Scanned through but didn't come across anything
of substance.

Is there a takeaway to this?

~~~
wccrawford
THey're saying you can use the geo-tags on pictures (along with the site's
ability to find pictures taken in a certain area) to determine whether you'd
like to go there or not, and plan your trip accordingly. They keep saying
"guidebook", like you'd make your own list of destinations in that area that
you want to visit.

I basically made our Tokyo tour without using a professional tour guide, and
knowing this about Instagram (assuming it applies to Tokyo) would have been
very nice at the time.

Edit: After playing with it a bit, I don't see how this would work well at
all. I was unable to "explore" without knowing exactly what I wanted to
explore in the first place, so it wasn't any good for planning a trip to a new
place.

~~~
tedmiston
You could browse common hashtags like #tokyo or the location tags of the major
neighborhoods, but you're right that this works better when you have a list of
destinations or places that you're curious about and would like to see what
they're really like. I do this myself, but even I admit the author's point, or
terminology at least, is exaggerated.

Sometimes I bookmark restaurants in NYC after seeing some particularly good
food on Instagram.

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usmannk
Non mobile: [http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/turning-
instagram...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/turning-instagram-
into-a-radically-unfiltered-travel-guide.html?_r=0)

~~~
dageshi
erm, are the images going insane for anyone else on that page? example
[https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/08/28/magazine/28ontech...](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2016/08/28/magazine/28ontech2/28ontech2-master675-v2.gif)
has what looks like weird barcode effects animating in and out?

~~~
robgough
Yeah, that's super weird. I'm assuming not deliberate.

Safari 9.1.2 on OS X 10.11.6

~~~
dageshi
Win 7, tried in latest Chrome and Firefox, thought it might be a graphics
driver issue, but I'm assuming not if it's across OS X as well

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tedmiston
@dang - Can we please change the url from mobile to desktop?

[http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/turning-
instagram...](http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/28/magazine/turning-instagram-
into-a-radically-unfiltered-travel-guide.html)

~~~
jedberg
Actually, I liked that it linked to mobile -- no paywall on mobile it seems.

~~~
tedmiston
The paywall being shown varies, and you can generally get around it by
clicking the web link at the top.

~~~
jedberg
I know how to get around the paywall but it's still a pain and a lot easier
when it doesn't show up, and it may vary, but for me, it shows up 100% of the
time on desktop and 0% of the time on mobile.

------
SixSigma
or google maps

~~~
pmlnr
I used to find interesting spots by browsing the pictures at a certain
location on the old Google Maps; I've used Flickr for this as well.

However: for real stories, I'm still visiting WordPress.com and read the
entries there.

~~~
tedmiston
I think this works well on Google Maps because you pan around and find nearby
towns you might not have heard of.

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psychologistt
Noticed the floating 'subscribe' bar. Does anyone really subscribe to read
news sites online? Could see more and more of these paywalls on news sites
lately.

