While studying abroad, your perspective changes in a number of small ways. You learn to like new foods, and that wearing the same three pairs of jeans for 10 days of travel is totally acceptable.

But even seemingly international activities, like using social media, change when you’re abroad. An ocean away from family and friends, social media becomes more crucial — and complicated — than ever.

For one thing, seeing fellow abroad students’ pictures from their own travels can induce a serious case of FOMO (fear of missing out). It’s impossible to see pictures of your friends relaxing on the beach in Barcelona or getting hot chocolate in Vienna without half-heartedly trying to concoct your own trips to those places.

Unfortunately, the sad truth is that there’s just not enough time in one semester to visit everywhere worth seeing.

Then there’s the question of how many of your own pictures to post to social media. On one hand, no one wants to be the one to flood their friends’ Facebook feed with endless pictures of obscure landmarks and panorama shots. But at the same time, there’s a subtle yet definite sense of competition not to be outdone by your friends’ Eiffel Tower selfies and Instagrams of exotic dishes.

Sometimes even taking obligatory travel pictures can be an exercise in social awkwardness. It’s somewhat cringe-inducing to realize you’re part of a pack of tourists monopolizing the sidewalk in order to snap iPhone photos of the Anne Frank house. I’ll freely admit to occasionally turning off my flash, playing it cool and trying to pretend that I’m texting, not taking a cheesy picture of a tourist attraction.

Even when you give up and give in to advertising yourself as a tourist, there’s a fine line between preserving memories via photos and actually creating memories by experiencing the new city you’re visiting. Pictures last a lifetime, yes, but I don’t think anyone has ever scrolled back through their iPhone photos and thought, “I’m so glad I took 17 pictures of that random coffee shop in Paris!”

Simply connecting to social media platforms can also become a challenge while traveling. As I recently discovered, many hostels that advertise “free Wi-Fi” actually mean, “there’s free Wi-Fi in our tiny lobby, but your room on the second floor — not so much.” And, since international data plans are wildly expensive, the best way to catch up with your friends while traveling is to cross your fingers and hope the restaurant across the street has an unlocked Wi-Fi network.

Despite its pitfalls, I’ve found using social media to be an indispensable way of staying in touch with family and friends. Google Hangout sessions with people from home are a necessary fixture in my schedule here. But, despite how nice it is to (somewhat) see your family face-to-face, there’s only so much that can be said in one hour every week. In addition, the time difference from Western Europe and the Midwest can be a major problem. Conversations can’t continue long past 4 p.m. U.S. time because, six hours and 3,000 miles away, my host family is trying to sleep.

The truth is that no amount of social media interaction can make up for being away from family and friends for an entire semester, or prevent homesickness from settling in. The combined force of Facebook wall posts, G-chat sessions and the occasional Skype call still fall short of one long face-to-face conversation.

Even though social media interaction falls far short of actual conversations, I feel lucky to be able to maintain as much connection as I do with friends and family back home. I’m well aware that past travellers weren’t able to send pictures of themselves in Prague to their grandmas in Cleveland, or follow a live coverage of their school’s basketball game on Twitter.

At the end of the day, social media is a necessary evil and one I’m thankful to have.

Maggie Cregan is a sophomore history and magazine journalism major. From Cleveland to Syracuse to Strasbourg, she enjoys rocking out and getting hopelessly lost. If you want to talk to her about this column, or are Keith Richards, reach her at mmcregan@syr.edu and follow her on Twitter at @MaggieCregan_SU.

Published on March 4, 2014 at 1:30 am