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When not to geotag while traveling - National Geographic
From overtourism to poaching, here are some downsides to using your phone's location services.
When traveling, you might tag your latest whereabouts in an Instagram story, post an airport check-in via Facebook, or tweet about culinary adventures in a new restaurant. The reason you can post your location is a useful feature called geotagging, which adds your GPS-location metadata to a video, photo, and other media content. It’s one of several convenient ways people document their travel.
But like with most technology, geotagging comes with trade-offs, too. Consider these scenarios the next time you wonder whether to refrain from tagging.
Geotagging can fuel overtourism
For tourist spots in travel guides or burgeoning areas hoping to attract more visitors, a viral, geotagged post could drive foot traffic. But for places like Horseshoe Bend, Bogle Seeds Farm, and Kaaterskill Falls, which don’t have the infrastructure to support thousands of visitors, geotagging is one of many factors that can skyrocket tourism to unmanageable levels and affect the local environment.
From overtourism to poaching, here are some downsides to using your phone's location services.
When traveling, you might tag your latest whereabouts in an Instagram story, post an airport check-in via Facebook, or tweet about culinary adventures in a new restaurant. The reason you can post your location is a useful feature called geotagging, which adds your GPS-location metadata to a video, photo, and other media content. It’s one of several convenient ways people document their travel.
But like with most technology, geotagging comes with trade-offs, too. Consider these scenarios the next time you wonder whether to refrain from tagging.
Geotagging can fuel overtourism
For tourist spots in travel guides or burgeoning areas hoping to attract more visitors, a viral, geotagged post could drive foot traffic. But for places like Horseshoe Bend, Bogle Seeds Farm, and Kaaterskill Falls, which don’t have the infrastructure to support thousands of visitors, geotagging is one of many factors that can skyrocket tourism to unmanageable levels and affect the local environment.
