The Guidebook Experiment ― Discovering Exploration in a Hyper-connected World

Our modern-day, multimedia, information-obsessed world has fundamentally altered much of what we do on a day-to-day basis, including the ways we shop, communicate, and learn. There are more tools telling us how to spend our free time than ever before, telling us not only where to go but also how to get there, what it will look like, and why we should go in the first place. This proliferation of guidebook material, this ?guidebook evolution,” has clearly changed the way we travel. By tracing the complete evolution of the guidebook, from pilgrim manuals and Baedeker's to Yelp reviews and Google Maps, and by identifying the three primary pillars of the guidebook structure, The Guidebook Experiment explores the effects this growth has had on the overall state and perception of the genre. Then, by using some of the world's greatest explorers as inspiration, the author sets out without a guidebook to a destination he knows little about, launching an experiment that determines how the guidebook has fundamentally altered the nature of travel. The Guidebook Experiment encourages readers to attempt their own guidebook experiment, in an unknown neighborhood or an unknown country, to discover the joy of travel on their own.

David Bockino is a Ph.D student and a Roy H. Park Fellow at the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Before returning to school for his doctoral degree in 2012, he worked in the media business for seven years, doing research, sales, and marketing for the U.S. and International divisions of ESPN. An inspired wanderer, he has been fortunate to see much of the world through independent travel and, until now, has always used a guidebook. He lives in Durham, NC.