Talk:Hitchhiking

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""There are is a nice community of hitchhikers in Europe, and it seems to be growing. It's sort of going hand in hand with the hospitality exchange movement. Some try to link this to the much larger (and economically highly influential) movement of free software and free information (think GNU/Linux and Wikipedia), and there is huge potential in this sense. If we want it or not, internet will be in people's pockets and most of our locations are already easily tracked. Link this to the potential trust available in online social networks (friends of friends), the rising prices of petrol and the lower need to be in one location and hitchhiking could be just at the start of a global come-back.

People will participate because it's ecological, others because of the economical aspects. Numerous people pick up hitchhikers is means of getting a bit of excitement in their life. For some hitchhiking starts as a form of extremely cheap transport and then it turns into a lifestyle that allows to do amazing and useful things without being trapped in an office 5 days a week. Some people have this idea that hitchhikers are stinky bums. Of course, at (rare) times hitchhikers can be on the road for more than 24 hours and feel the need for a shower, but others are traveling equipped with laptops, mobile phones, a fresh shave and shower and GPS devices. ""

I would erase this paragraph, since this part of the page is 100% bullocks to me. However, why would I. --Fverhart 08:56, 26 September 2009 (UTC)

I find all of this perfectly reasonable. At 789 I met lots of people who were inspired to begin hitchhiking because of the appearance of modern technological tools like Hitchwiki and hospitality networks, and the ideals of Casa Robino are becoming more and more popular among the organized European hitchhiking community. CRCulver 13:41, 26 September 2009 (UTC)
Agree that the contents are highly subjective. However, the sound of "it is growing, we see our community growing bigger and bigger" is coming exclusively from within a group of young internet junkies, which certainly is not a mainstream group. I guess that groups always claim that they are becoming stronger, especially if they are factually a small minority. Agree that on 789 you will meet the top of the pops of motivated young webbound hitchhikers; after all 789 is an internet initiative, and promoted exclusively within internet networks. The online hospitality exchange networks have a high reach among low budget travellers and the internet is available all over those days. But is this going to change the scene? After seven years of thumbing, 56,000 kms, I would not be too sure of that.
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!
--Fverhart 22:21, 26 September 2009 (UTC)