Have you ever heard the question above? Honestly, I am not quite sure whether it is a cultural debate, or it is universal. Whenever I travel on my own, this question pops in my mind and for me, it is always traveling but there is an underlying reason behind this answer. I am really bad at names and I mostly rely on memories because my mind is better at remembering memories. It is called “Episodic Memory”. At least, it is what I remember from psychology course I have taken. As I told you, I am bad at remembering stuff unless I associate that that particular memory with something.
Therefore, I always believed in the power of experience. For instance, the taste. Nobody can forget the best food they ever had, can they? However, if you read about the best food someone has eaten, you could remember this place in order to taste but I claim you do not feel the same feeling the writer tells you about. The taste won’t be the same even you eat the same food because of feelings matter. Thus, even though I believe reading helps us to learn new things and places, but this can’t be enough? Right. Okay, I am aware of the fact that the claims I have explained above do not enough to claim that traveling is the only way to know. However, I wonder what you think about this question. What would your answers be?
Interesting question @Serraisil even if the answer seems obvious: Travel is the way to learn, as you learn with your body, that have a much more direct memory than what we learn by reading and interpreting. But …
There is something that I call “the madeleine of Marcel Proust”, when a taste, a smell, or even a sound or a color is quickly recalling to your mind a very specific moment of your life, vivid like if it was five minutes ago.
What about writing? Writing is the other side of reading, and one of our activity of Local Guides. Why we write? My personal reason for writing and sharing photos, here and in Google Maps, is to stimulate the reader the visit the place, and to have his own experience.
Ha. Tricky question Although I’m not sure if there’s any way to prove it for sure, I’ll say traveler knows more.
Travelers experience things directly. Readers experience things second hand from someone else. I thing learning and experiencing things yourself will always give you an advantage.
@Serraisil This is an interesting question! I would say that neither knows better than the other, but rather the reader is smarter and the traveler is wiser. Having acquired the knowledge, the reader has a better ability to apply what has been learned. Having acquired the experience, the traveler has a better awareness of his or her surroundings and the world.
Although I’m not sure if there’s any way to prove it for sure, I’ll say traveler knows more.
because i’m a traveler. not a reader. hehe