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Is Social Media Undermining and Distorting Actual Wilderness Experiences?

Odyssey said:
While all influencers are content providers, not all content providers are influencers
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I consider myself a “content provider” and never an influencer. I don’t promote anything other than wood, canvas and leather. I rarely if ever talk to the camera, and I try to keep my videos short.
I enjoy setting up shots that really don’t interfere with whatever I’m doing, either in the shop or on the trail. It’s fun and the comments I receive from viewers are very rewarding, some are like old friends. I just use an older GoPro, my photography isn’t great but it’s passable. My YouTube channel isn’t monetized although it has had enough views to be profitable occasionally. I have fine tuned my instagram page to feed me mostly content that shares my style.

I do follow a quite a few different canoe channels on YouTube, some I rarely watch, a few others I eagerly await their next trip. I do find the commercials a bit annoying but I get it, I don’t have to watch. Some content providers talk a lot, some are ok, some are trying to copy the ok guys and just don’t have it. Sometimes I learn something, sometimes I don’t but I’m glad I had the opportunity to watch.
 
I do think social media has had an effect on my wilderness experience, but I'm not sure whether it's a net negative or positive.

The bad includes the fact that I no longer have any secret hot springs. In fact, I've stopped even thinking about them because they've been pretty much ruined. More bad - the new found popularity of some places due to Internet exposure has resulted in added restrictions - not to mention, limited access.

The good....
I was always a hiker/backpacker/angler, but I came into canoeing, among other things, late in life. As I understand it, by the time I got serious about paddling, the paddling publications had already drifted away from canoes to concentrate on kayaks. Having a complete lack of canoe mentorship in my area, what I have learned has been almost entirely due to social media - especially here and the old Pnet, but also some YouTube. I wouldn't have even known about the excellent McMuffin book "Paddle Your Own Canoe" except for reading about it first on Pnet. I would never have heard about canoe poling at all before Pnet. There are some bad YouTube video, but some have been extremely helpful in my skills development.

I can say the same about the canoes themselves. When I first decided to get into canoeing, all I knew about canoes was two brands - Coleman and Grumman. Social media is where I first noticed there was something better - a lot of things better. Having paddled both of those first two brands early on, I never would have been excited about canoes if I hadn't learned the difference. And no one around here was going to get me up to speed.

More bad - all this has cost me money. Neutral - I would have spent it on something else anyway.
 
As for my "content"...... I was into photography as early as age 10. That was effecting my wilderness experience long before the Internet. I've gone through phases of more photos & videos vs less to none. I enjoy myself more when I ignore the camera.

But there are times when I wish I had the camera at hand - like the morning I sat with my coffee and watched the wolf work its way up the river canyon, stopping to howl mournfully every couple hundred feet or so. It's a great memory I'd love to share.
 
I think there’s a lot of good that come from these videos we all watch, especially on YouTube. I think we all have taken something or several things away from them, locations, techniques, equipment, modifications, repairs, or maybe as a “movie” to watch.

To me, the issue is less about those types and more so of the look at me persona. I came into canoeing with experience as another type of paddler, the maneuvers weren’t too unfamiliar for me. That said, I’ve learned a few new paddle strokes from videos. These videos showcase beautiful areas and paddling, they are almost always conscious of the land they’re on and treat it with respect. The videos that show bad info while the couple are hotter than the sun and the rake in the views ($$) lure too many people to beautiful areas. We’re lucky that the remote places are traveled by like minded people compared to the easy accessible spots.

Reminds me of a time my wife and I were on a short hike around some cliffs on superior. It’s a launch spot for kayak tours, but around the corner is exceptional swimming. A jazzy couple showed up in their own kayaks, not acceptable for that lake, and started doing acroyoga in front of a camera. 🙄 it ruined the spot for good
 
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