When I first started traveling I feel like backpacking was a lot more genuine than it is now. You got your pack, your ticket, and then you headed out into the great unknown with the only knowledge being what you had heard from other people. The internet existed when I first started my international travel at the turn of the millennium, but it wasn't all encompassing the way that it is now. There were no mobile devices so if you got stuck somewhere, you figured it out. That's just the way it was.
Often, I found myself in a part of town to discover that all the hostels were full and I either had to get creative, or pay for an overpriced hotel. It was at that time that I devised a strategy of going to a bar and asking the bartender for advice rather than just walking around fruitlessly. This ended up being my default strategy for the next decade.
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These days I get a bit annoyed when I am traveling and see that almost everyone that is part of the new crowd is constantly staring at their phones and completely reliant upon it for whatever they are going to do. But I also realize that my notions of what backpacking really is, is likely the notions of a bygone era. I do still stick with my opinion that the new crowd who have only ever known travel with smartphones are missing out on what the true essence of travel of this sort is though.
While I will admit that a big part of it is because I am older and maybe they don't want to socialize with me, I have noticed that people don't really get together and talk so much anymore and that was a really huge part of backpacking for me back "in the day."
You would rock up to a hostel, there would be a bunch of people lounging around and reading or chatting over coffee or even better, mid-day beers, and you would just ask "mind if I join ya?" and the answer would always be "yes." These days I mostly don't even bother because people are a lot less social than they used to be. Many people shy away from contact with other humans and to me that kind of makes me wonder why they are traveling in the first place.
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There were so many opportunities to meet so many people from so many different cultures, so many different backgrounds, so many different countries. Often you would sit down and hear some fantastic stories about places they had recently visited and they would give you wonderful first-hand information about an area that you had planned to go to later and often they would have specific information about a hostel or area of town that you absolutely-must-eat-at... none of this was sponsored, or an add, or a gimmick... this was real information from people that had no agenda that just wanted to help out as best they could.
Later in my backpacking years it was actually me that was doling out a lot of the advice, and that felt good to help others as well.
Many times my next destination was determined by the people that I would meet at particular places and I have been to many spots that I never planned on going to because of these chance encounters and even ended up dating a woman for several years who was from Cyprus, which is something I never thought would happen for me. It didn't work out, but we still chat every now and then and the reasons for it falling apart were not related to our own attitudes or some traumatic cheating incident - we just realized the long-distance thing wasn't going to work and she had to return to a job and I didn't. Neither of us regret our time together or that we had met in that guesthouse in Nicaragua that one afternoon in the early 2000's.
One of my most profound moments in all of my travels comes from being in Bangkok one night where every single hostel was full. As we would walk down a street we would see other people with backpacks on and would say "I'll save you some time, everything is full down there as well" and the next thing we knew our numbers had grown and eventually we used my tactic of going to a bar and asking the bartender. We didn't actually end up getting a hostel that night, but we did get to sleep on massage tables in a private space that the bartender knew the owner of. We paid very little money for this and honestly, it was more comfortable than most of the beds i have slept on. That crew remained a "team" for weeks afterwards and I still keep in touch with several of them to this day. I wouldn't know these people if we all were tucked into our smartphones where the very first instance of something being not exactly what we wanted that we just asked Expedia to find something for us.
The camaraderie is mostly gone now and from what I have seen people are just more distant than they used to be. These days if you strike up a conversation with someone, especially if they are younger and have only ever known society with tablets, smartphone, etc... they seem apprehensive to talk to anyone.
A big part of travel, and especially backpacking is getting to know other people. Otherwise you are just going somewhere and taking photos and don't get me started on fucking influencers ruining almost anywhere that you try to go because instead of just admiring the scenery, they have to shoot a 10 minute YouTube video about it.
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here is a fun article about parts of the world that influencers have ruined.
I still enjoy backpacking but for the most part the way that I remember it being is gone. There is no sense of adventure anymore but instead the very thing that backpacking was all about (doing something that isn't just the same damn thing everyone else does) no longer exists. Everyone gets all of their information from the internet and the internet is bought and paid for by the businesses that have the resources to be visible there. Gigantic party hostels are now the only ones who can really make it in the game anymore, and I absolutely loathe those places and I don't think this is because I am older. I would have hated it back when I was in my 20's as well.
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not a great film, but "The Beach" does touch base on what backpacking used to be like
I don't think there is any way to go back honestly. The world has become too committed to immediate gratification and the absence of any sort of adversity. People no longer seek out other humans for advice, they go to a travel forum that has almost certainly been inundated with bots and paid advertisers posing as helpful individuals.
For those of you that travel in a backpacker sense these days for the first time. I really believe you have missed the glory-years and that they are not going to come back. Even if you do put your phone down and truly try to experience the unknown, the people around you are not going to... and that's a damn shame.
I guess I am just happy that I was born when I was because I claim no higher ground here: These people are simply the product of the environment that they were brought up in. I am the product of mine.