Changes

:: What is so interesting or exiting about technological features as phones and computers; it reflects a digi-life, what is the meaning of that? The little screens take the attention away from the real life.. .. Most people who hitchhike, do it during a certain period within their lives; somewhere it starts, somewhere it ends. On average people do not hitchhike more than a couple of years, so I guess, usually between 18 and 25 years old. There is a kind of age restriction for hitchhiking, although this is not extremely strict, since individuals can see for themselves the span of time during which they still feel like it. Same applies to people on 789, but as said, such a small group has no significance in a broader view. Theorem: only a really small percentage of people who hitchhike and are active within hospitality exchange organisations likes to acknowledge the fact that their way of travelling is bound to be a marginal way of travelling. In other words: we see what we would like, hope or desire to see, in this case that hitchhiking is doing really well. Hitchwiki is not bringing a large scale revival of hitchhiking, however it can help, and more 789, in providing a warm nest, where young internet addicted hitchhikers can exchange their opinions, or cuddle all night on a beach near Odessa!:: Individuals cannot change the society, while the character of society and politics highly determine the face and presence of hitchhiking as a way to deplace oneself. :: Quote "huge potential in this sense"; what is huge then; the potential of letting a community of hitchhikers grow based on Hitchwiki and a couple of other websites is not that big at all. Rather a return of hitchhiking would depend on economic incentives, or changes in the basic structure of our society. The significance of Hitchwiki or Casa Robino is nill from a broad perspective. Twenty active hitchhikers in the Netherlands, as an example, resulting a.o. from Hitchwiki does not at all imply a sudden revival of hitchhiking. Remember that still 10 out of 16 million people primarily travel by car; also I do some 20-30% of my yearly distance in the car registered in my name. :: Quote "the rising prices of petrol"; factually prices of petrol have not risen since the 1970's when compared to people's buying power. This assumption makes no sense. Mario Rinvolucri in the 1970's gave his study "Hitch-hiking" a subtitle "A pound a gallon and more for petrol -- cars increasingly have to be shared and hitching is one good way." However, the world of car mobility has not changed, and financing a car has not become problematic for a larger share of people. To the contrary.:: Quote "the lower need to be in one location"; a lower need to be in one location does not exist. What seems to exist, for some, is an -- experienced -- higher need to travel. However, this is also subjective, since nobody is forced to travel. In any case it remains the result of people's personal choices, no force is making them move. However, the forces are strong and intelligent, and do their best to make people lead a car mobile life. But the need to be in one location certainly is not lower than before, it seems.:: The upside, and this is what I support is, that there is an enormous potential to give young adults the opportunity to travel by hitchhiking for a couple of years, or longer depending on motivation. That is also quite clear, that especially young people deserve that opportunity to see the world in this way! This will favor the society in several ways, people will be more open to others, warmer, more social, more humane, if hitchhiking is regarded as a unique opportunity to broaden horizons, to share goodness!:: --[[User:Fverhart|Fverhart]] 22:21, 26 September 2009 (UTC)