Adventure in the Age of Screens

What is adventure and wanderlust, really? I can tell you one thing: it’s not scrolling through Instagram and spending time in front of a screen. At least, not always.

I’ve noticed something that tends to happen to me when I travel, and it revolves around the thing you’re reading this on: a screen. Social media has a habit of taking us out of the moment and sucking us into an endless stream of content.

I’m not a huge social media poster. I spend time scrolling, looking at memes or videos, but I don’t usually post a lot. (Apart from the socials for this blog.) When I notice that I’m on social media too much, constantly getting drawn into the onslaught of unnecessary information and unimportant drama, I delete such apps off of my phone for a while.

However, I do still spend a lot of time online. I am part of Gen Z, after all! I’ve had the internet with me my whole life. I watch a lot of Youtube, play video games during most of my free time, and talk to friends over the internet. I even play Dungeons and Dragons online most of the time, since the people I play with are often too far away to play in-person.

The whole point of this is to say that I’m in front of screens a lot.

But when I travel, it’s like a switch flips and I lose all desire to look at screens.

My Experience

When I travel, I often bring plenty of things to do, especially in preparation for long flights or road trips. I pack books, my laptop, my Nintendo Switch with a bunch of games, and even just download music on my phone. I never know what I’m actually going to want to do during all that downtime. So I bring everything. And I usually don’t use any of it.

Usually on a flight I end up playing games or reading. When I can, I look out the window at the landscape far below me. On road trips I just end up listening to music or an audiobook while I drive or look out the window. I want to see every little thing around me. I have less fun traveling at night for this exact reason, but that also has its own charm to it when you’re in a city.

Once I’m actually at my destination, I find that I do not enjoy being online. Whenever I’m at my hotel with nothing to do, gaming never feels right. I think I’m just too mentally exhausted from the logistics of traveling and navigating a new area, and playing games requires a decent bit of brainpower.

Usually, I do resort to scrolling on my phone since it’s an easy way to pass the time. (Even if I would rather be doing something else!)

Here’s an example: When I was in Belize, I fell out of my routine of reading before bed every night, because I was usually too tired or busy with other things and wanted to spend time talking to my new friends. At the same time, though, if I had idle time, I just couldn’t find any enjoyment in games. Not for a lack of trying, either. I was opening Minecraft and several other games trying to find something that piqued my interest. None of them did.

And I think this gets at a bigger idea.

Adventure and Screens

When I’m at home, or have free time, the stories I often read are fantasy or sci-fi. Games, too. I play roleplaying games with large open worlds, or worlds with a lot of detail that feel vastly different to ours. I’ll explore everything I can, but I don’t get caught up in the little tiny details, either. I like to go on adventures. Most of the time, I find it difficult to replay games unless it can feel like a new adventure every time.

When I travel, though, I’m on an adventure already: exploring a new country, experiencing a new culture, and meeting new people. Everything is new and the real world has some magic in it again.

And I think this is the reason why I have such a hard time enjoying fictional worlds while I travel. When I’m home, everything around me is familiar (for the most part). I need new experiences and a feeling of adventure to keep me going.

Wanderlust, I think, is just curiosity pushed to an extreme. People learn in different ways. Some people are visual learners, some auditory, while others have to learn something by actually doing it. Learning and wanderlust are both motivated by curiosity. But wanderlust is like curiosity by doing, instead of seeing or hearing. It’s a step beyond; a desire to go out and actually experience the world, rather than just learn about it. You can’t do that behind a screen.

Still, when I’m home, I need something to explore. I think that’s why games (on a table or a screen) have always given me so much comfort. I can fulfill that desire to explore until I have the opportunity to do it for real.

Language and Adventure

Yep, I found a way to bring this back to language!

I’ve talked about this in some other posts, but if you want to properly learn a language, you have to experience the culture it comes from. Immersing yourself in language is the only way to truly learn it.

I think in this discussion language serves as a good analogy for what I’m trying to get at. You can learn about history and culture or study vocab and grammar at home all you want. But if you don’t give yourself time to actually go try it for yourself, it won’t work out.

Gaming acts as a supplement for the real thing, but can’t truly replace it. When you’re traveling, there’s this inherent knowledge that you’re experiencing the real deal, and playing a game to simulate the experience just doesn’t cut it. I think this is why I have such a hard time getting back into D&D after a trip, too: I’ve just experienced real adventure, and this simulated version of it just doesn’t feel the same.

Conclusion

Edit Sept 2025: When I was in Romania, I had a similar experience. I dropped my reading routine, didn’t play games as much, etc. I was also really busy there with teaching English and running various activities at a summer camp. More than once, I tried to get into some games during time off and struggled with it. Then I made a friend there who also played games and we started playing a few together. It was the social aspect of it that made it fun again! We’re still in contact. He even joined one of my D&D games!

Ultimately, my point here is this: if you’re getting bored of something you usually love, try getting some new experiences. Or, somewhat inversely, if you’re getting bored of something you love, you could already be in the middle of a more rewarding experience!

There are so many ways to experience new things. You don’t have to travel halfway across the world to do it. Go to a nearby town you’ve never visited. Try a new restaurant or hike.

There’s a whole world out there. Go explore it. And if you run into some problems along the way, I have some advice for that, too.