Comments on: Is Social Media killing the Element of Surprise in our lives?

By: Brooke Pitts

Brooke Pitts — Sat, 27 Feb 2010 22:45:39 +0000

I have also pondered this same question recently. My wife & I went on our 10th anniversary trip at the end of December (coincidentally, to Tulum Mexico as well) and I fell into this trap of spending way too many hours reading thousands of posts (on Trip Advisor, etc.) written about hundreds of hotels, restaurants, etc. in the Yucatan area. I definitely felt like there is a degradation of the surprise / adventure element, not to mention the time spent over-analyzing so many posts.

However, on balance, I believe it was worth it to ensure we had a great trip given the amount of $$ we were spending. I don't think we would have made the decision to go to Tulum without all of the easily accessible information, and I'm very glad we went there. BTW, we also learned about / ate at several of the same restaurants mentioned in the posts you cited as examples, and they were indeed excellent!

By: uberVU - social comments

uberVU - social comments — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:00:57 +0000

Social comments and analytics for this post…

This post was mentioned on Twitter by NitinGuptasays: Is Social media killing the element of surprise in our lives? http://bit.ly/Ly30K...

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Tue, 20 Oct 2009 07:24:46 +0000

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By: guptanitin

guptanitin — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 17:30:58 +0000

Certainly. Glad that you found the posts useful. Look forward to seeing you again

By: Polprav

Polprav — Sat, 17 Oct 2009 01:52:17 +0000

Hello from Russia!
Can I quote a post in your blog with the link to you?

By: Tweets that mention Is Social Media killing the Element of Surprise in our lives? | Digital Marketing -- Topsy.com

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:58:50 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Linn Yen, Nitin Gupta. Nitin Gupta said: Is Social media killing the element of surprise in our lives? http://bit.ly/Ly30K [...]

By: Mark W Schaefer

Mark W Schaefer — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 21:16:34 +0000

I am planning a trip to Spain and am feeling a similar anxiety. My wife is researching everything to the Nth degree, while I would prefer a little more … adventure. Last year I went to Italy and made a reservation at a small hotel I got off of the NYT. It was in a location I sought but other than that, I knew nothing about it. When I got there, there was a grizzled old man sitting behind a weathered counter. He opened an enormous leather book to find my name. No computer. No credit cards. That was one of the best moments of the whole trip.

This is probably what the review would have said, if I had found one…

"This place needs to be updated. The check-in desk looks dilapidated. Service is slow because there is no computerized check-in. They had to look for my resrvation in a BOOK while I stood there in the heat of the day. And then they wouldn;t take my credit card! I will never go back."