Why do we dream of traveling?
When you daydream, do you ever find yourself on top of a mountain, among the great pyramids, or meandering in the streets of New York? There are many reasons we dream of being on vacation: it could be the different environment, a new experience, or an experience we want to relive, a chance to learn more about a new culture, or simply a way to escape and recharge. There are so many different reasons that we would want to go someplace so badly. I personally have many different dream vacations. There are so many places I would like to see, and all for very different reasons.
In the podacast Speaking of Psychology, hosted by Kim Mills, the episode Why We Love to Travel featuring Andrew Stevenson, PhD,cultural psychologist explains all sorts of things that happen when we are travelling or on vacation.
But before that, let’s do a little warm-up. Sometimes dreams may seem very unattainable and unrealistic, but that’s the beauty of dreaming. It can be a goal, or it can be a fantasy. So instead of trying to limit yourself, today let’s all think about what our wildest dream vacation would look like.
Warm up
- Where would you go?
- What is it about this place that interests you?
- What places, restaurants, shows, and historical sites would you recommend?
- Who would you take with you?
- How is the food there?
- For how long would you like to stay?
- Where would you stay? Ex. Airbnb, Fancy resort, Campsite
The Podcast: Speaking of Psychology-Why we love to travel
Teacher’s note: the podcast is 35 minutes long, so depending on your audience’s attention span and level, you may only select certain segments. Below, you will notice I have proposed listening comprehension questions for the most juicy segments.
Comprehension Questions
- 03:18 – 04:25. Hedonistic and Eudaimonic
- Stevenson says there are two types of travel mindsets: hedonistic and eudaimonic. Can you define those?He also mentions that usually people do both of these while you’re travelling, one day you could be doing a eudaimonic activity and the next hedonistic; what activities would you do that are hedonistic, and what activities are eudaimonic?
- 02:13-02:45. Micro-Adventures
- He talks about how sometimes you don’t need a passport or money to travel. Travel could just be going for a drive somewhere or exploring a new neighborhood; If you took that into consideration, what would your dream day trip be?
- 16:42-17:57. Digital Nomadism
- In this podcast, he talks about something called digital nomadism, which is where people, often working in tech or anything online, managed to do both work and travel at the same time; Is this something you could see yourself doing and why?
- 18:13-18:51: Documenting our Travel
- At the beginning of second half of the article Mills ask Stevenson if he thought “ that the pressure to document and share our experiences on social media is changing the way we experienced travel both and real time and in the way we remember the trip” how would you answer this question?
