Mobile sociality : backpacker interaction in a digital world

The rise of the internet, social networking sites, and mobile devices have transformed the way backpackers experience travel. Social sphere of traveling is not merely a physical space but is now extended through digital social media in which backpackers can interact, post, share, and present their corporeal travel activities online. This study aims to explore social affordances of digital technologies including mobile devices, social networking sites, and the internet as means of extended social interaction, and how it affects the way backpackers experience travel. The affordances perspective assumes that the linkage between human and technology is relational, meaning that it creates the possibilities for human actions as well as constrains depending on the context of the user and the capacity of technological artefact. One of the largest Indonesian backpacker community is selected as the research site. The community is managed both online and offline through an online forum and conducting routine gatherings for its members. An approach in qualitative research known as netnography combined with interviews were employed to collect research materials. Analysis was performed to identify patterns of backpacker interaction afforded by digital technologies. The findings indicated that the presence of digital technologies was seen beneficial for the creation of network capital, presentation of identity, and performing mobile social interactions demonstrating a form of network sociality. Furthermore, digital mobile interactions increasingly became a central element in the making of the backpacking experience. The use of digital technologies among backpackers reflected the convergence of corporeal mobility and digitally mediated communication which can help explain patterns of sociality and interaction on the move