Curious People
Tagged, Trending, Trampled:
Social Media’s Takeover of Travel
“Overtourism” entered the dictionary in 2018, right around the peak of Instagram. That’s not a coincidence. Dr. Erika Polson studies how geotags, hashtags, and viral locations turn neighborhoods into content and travel into a product people scroll through. In this talk, she traces how social media didn’t just change where we go, it changed why we go and how–and why even the backlash against overtourism feeds the same cycle it’s trying to escape.
Meet Your Expert: Erika Polson
Erika Polson is a professor in the Department of Media, Film & Journalism Studies at the University of Denver. She has researched and published on how digital media support lifestyle mobilities related to travelers, expats, and digital nomads. Her most recent project is the book Tagging the World: Mobile Media, Social Platforms, and the Extractive Logics of Global Tourism (coming out in March 2027 on the University of Chicago Press).