Nomads are causing McDonaldization of the world
An interesting opinion was published in Lonely Planet by Geena Truman. In short, Geen argues how digital nomads are ruining historical and cultural cores of different cities around the world by creating a globalized demand for products and services to which locals are very responsive and adaptable with their business due to new opportunities for earning more money. As a result, traditional products and services are slowly disappearing because digital nomads are not that adaptable and demand similar things wherever their live. Moreover, some projections estimate how population of digital nomads might increase to a whooping 1 billion in the next 15 years which in turn will increase and intensify the challenge of cultural (and perhaps ecological) preservation.
Croatia just like many other countries which heavily relies on tourism has witnessed this trend quite a while a go. As a matter of fact digital nomads are not to be blamed alone because there are many other factors which contribute to this problem. Vacation rental booking engines such as Airbnb and Booking.com have started this trend way before digital nomads were as relevant while everyone in tourism sector happily jumped on the board of newly emerging business. In addition, the situation with the pandemic has greatly contributed to the trend of abandoning not just historical cores but cities in general.
Perhaps we are facing a new challenge (or better to say opportunity) which has not been present before to do both – maintain as much of old cultural identity as possible but also build a brand new global culture which will be beneficial for all alongside existing traditions and values.
A quest for a golden mean
The responsibility is upon all of us and one cannot only bare responsibility for a home country but for every country there is in this world. Long gone are the effects of national borders and physical distances for we have surpassed them all by building a global community. Would you like to arrive to Bangkok one day only to feel just the same as if you just came to Rome? However, the global culture that all of us have been creating for a while now is not necessarily negative. Practicing yoga, drinking smoothies and eating vegan food at least once in a while is beneficial for everyone so we could somehow rest our moral dilemmas knowing that we are capable to bring about positive changes upon different societies besides the one that comes in the shape of earnings and extra capital.
Just like in every other area of our lives in the context of new normal we should stop for a while and ask ourselves some introspective questions like:
- What am I expecting to learn/experience from a culture where I am heading with my digital profession?
- How can I contribute to sustain the local tradition?
- In what way can my consumption behaviors cause toxic changes on local communities?
Here in DigiCromad we will try to focus our publishing in a way to address these and similar issues and raise awareness of our readers as much as possible. The answer could be hidden in one of those widely used concepts of… SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT. We just have to add in the chapter related to cultural heritage besides environmental challenges. Think globally and act (buy) locally. And besides the world present inside of our computer and phone screens there is a whole real world out there completely different from our own. Maybe that world is irreversibly disappearing so we might as well go and discover what it has to offer or…what we can offer instead.
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