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Any wanderluster who knows anything has heard of Matador Network. Founded in 2006 by two guys the goal was to create a social network and content publication for and by travelers.

I have a love/hate relationship with Matador Network. Some of the articles are great. Some of them just make me wonder… so many things. The first that usually comes to mind is “ok they can’t seriously be writing this with a straight face. This has to be a joke. Is this a joke?” and then as I am unclear as to whether it is indeed intended to be farce, “How the hell can anyone write this crap let alone get it publish on a site with such a reputation among travelers’.

Recent Titles include

  • How to piss off someone from (insert basically anywhere here)
  • Why you shouldn’t date a girl who travel.
  • You should totally date a girl who travels.
  • “Random number” of things you’ll never hear someone from “blank” say
  • “Random number” of signs you were born and raised “random place”

Aside from being highly formulaic, can we stop putting people into such finite stereotypical categories. I’m from Texas but yeee haw doesn’t come out of my mouth unless I am being incredibly sarcastic. Most people guess I’m from the UK even after speaking with me so clearly there are no signs I was raised here.

I understand it’s probably supposed to be a bit funny and a bit true, but honestly I find most articles like this to be neither. The people I’ve met while traveling, and maybe it’s because of how I chose to travel, have always seemed very uninfluenced by stereotypes so when a long standing, well reputed website publishes, or allows stuff like this to be published, it’s a bit disarming. In my mind, traveling is supposed to open you up and make the world seem more whole and united. I don’t go around assuming a person is from a particular place because of any characteristics. I think the world would be much better off if more people acted like this.  And it definitely would be better off if the mass media stopped supporting crap writing like this.

 

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