THE EXPERIENCE OF DISCONNECTING FROM INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY (ICTs) WHILE TRAVELING IN LATE MODERNITY

Various authors have shown how Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) are transforming the travel experience to the point of undermining the original traveler objectives. Largely based on the traveler and technology relationship, most previous analyses have assumed that the changing travel experience is attributable to the ICTs. From a survey based on 53 semi-structured interviews, this paper shows the inadequacy of seeking to understood traveler attempts to disconnect from ICTs as symptomatic of the relationship between travelers and technologies. The authors content that it is equally important to understand travelers’ use of ICTs within the wider context of late modernity which has induced particular relationships amongst relatives and the deployment of ICTs. The article highlights limitations of previous ethnographic approaches in ICT studies using the example of their role in the travel experience.