How Paul Smith Traveled the World by Twitter
Paul Smith, also known by @twitchhiker, used Twitter to travel from England to New Zealand, relying on his social media"friends" to put him up for the night, feed him a meal and give him a ride to his next destination.
Paul Smith, also known by @twitchhiker, used Twitter to travel from England to New Zealand, relying on his social media”friends” to put him up for the night, feed him a meal and give him a ride to his next destination. In Mediabistro’s latest “Hey, How’d You Do That?” interview, Smith talks about what’s next for his career and how he avoided being taken advantage of during his voyage:
We’ve heard of the Craigslist killer and other people who have been taken advantage of via social media. As you traveled the world, how did you vet each “friend” to ensure your own safety?
There was a rule on the trip that if more than one person offered me help, I got to choose who I picked. But if I only got one, I had to take it. The thing with Twitter is, actually, if it’s an active account and people post on there on a regular basis, and they don’t just retweet all the time, but they actually post some opinions and thoughts, you get to profile them pretty easy. You get an understanding of their life and their domestic situation. So that was quite reassuring because, for everyone who would offer, I would go back through their timeline for a couple months and see what sort of person I was about to get involved in. But there was times when I didn’t do that.
Read the rest in Hey, How’d You Travel the World via Twitter, Paul Smith?.
— Sherry Yuan
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