The Meaning of Travel

There is a Taiwanese singer who singed a song, named “The Meaning of Travel”. I think it is interesting to upload the music video here. The lyrics are about a guy breaking up with his girlfriend. The girl asks him what the meaning of travel is. She doesn’t understand why after every journey, their hearts drift apart little by little. I think that the music video was shot both in Japan and Taiwan.

However, this music video has nothing to do with the topic. I am just inspired by the lyrics and asking myself the same question. A few days ago, I was reading a Taiwanese online magazine which talked about the generation of Web.2.0. The magazine explains the generation of Web. 2.0 by giving exampsle of the two latest media: the first one is Wikipedia, and the second one is YouTube.

The spirit of Wikipedia and YouTube lies in the same principles: to transmit, to share and to circulate globally. These three principles are in stark contrast to the classic principles of economics. In the angle of classic economics, one has to be selfish, to beat other people up in order to succeed.

YouTube is not yet completely successful. According to a business article, YouTube “is losing more than $500,000 a month.” Fortunately, YouTube has a rich dad, Google, to rely on. But from the generation of Web 2.0, we are able to perceive a new value: the power of individual which encourages everyone to share, to succeed by the collective intelligence. I love this idea and think that it is the meaning of travel. Nowadays, we are able to travel easily, either by modern transportation or by the technology. We can actually see far beyond our own town, our home land. Experiencing different cultures and values enlarge our perspectives. With new perspectives, we may find new solutions to old problems and many opportunities waiting ahead.

To travel is to see how big the world is and how small we are, at the same time, collecting individual’s wisdom and power. Have you realized what your geographic boundary is?