Hi my dear friends. First al all: Thank you so much to be always there!!! Today we are gooing to read a short story about "influencers and travels". A lot of people want to become "influencers" nowadays and if it is possible, travelling around the world. This short story is about this fashionable subjet. I hope you'll like it!
Hola amigos. Primeramente: ¡Muchas gracias por estar siempre ahí! Hoy vamos a leer un relato corto sobre "influencers y viajes". Mucha gente quiere convertirse en "influencer" hoy en día y si es posible, viajando alrededor del mundo. Este relato corto trata sobre este tema tan de moda. ¡Espero que os guste!
AN INFLUENCER'S DILEMMA by Talitha Linehan.
From: Speak Up magazine.
Photos: RTVE.es / LaVanguardia/ ComputerHoy/ Amazon.es
Katya refreshed the brower on her laptotp and read the most recent comments on her vlog. Wow! You look incredible. Beautiful girl. Beautiful place! Inspirational. Living the dream, Katya!
The comments were in reaction to her final video from Joshua Tree National Park, where she had spent a week exploring the desert landscape and documenting every moment for her travel vlog, GLOBAL ADVENTURES.
The name of her vlog wasn't very accurate. Until now, she'd visited destinations only in the US. But her plan was to visit every national park in the country to attract more subscribers -and advertisers. She wanted to use the money generated by advertisements on her vlog to begin living her dream of visiting every country in the world!
She refreshed her browser again and more comments appeared. "Ooooh, I'm going there next. Can't wait!" read one, from a user called Wendy's World.
Katya cringed. Wendy was a wannabe travel influencer, desperate for attention. She'd been commenting on all of Katy'as posts and, to her frustration, had begun replicating her style in videos and visiting the same destinations as her.
Katya visited Wendy's vlog and saw, with a sense of satisfaction, that she had only a few hundred subscribers compared to Katy'as 10,000+. "How pathetic!" she thought.
She was about to disconnect when she saw she had a new direct message. She clicked on it and saw, to her surprise, that it was from an eccentric billionaire she followed named Alison Yang. Alison was one of Katya's idols, an older woman who'd travelled the world.
"Make your travel dreams come true," the message read, and it contained a video, a video of Alison Yang, the Alison Yang, speaking directly to her!
After introducing herself (as if anyone didn't know who Alison Yang was!), Alison said: "I am here to offer you an opportunity to make all your travel dreams come true. For one year, I will accompany you as you travel to destinations of your choosing, anywhere in the world, all expenses paid. You will decide on the itinerary, where we go, what we do..."
Katya paused the video, trembling with emotion. She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She visualised her subscriber numbers exploding from 10,000+ to millions, to tens of millions.
Was it possible to visit every country in the world, almost two hundred countries in a year? She thought it was, using Alison's money and resources. She could become the first person to do it, as millions watched!
She unpaused the video.
"However..." Alison said.
"Oh-oh," thought Katya. "Here comes the catch."
"There is one caveat. You won't be permitted to document your travels, in video, photography or writing. And you certainly won't be permitted to post about them online. Ever. You will have to sign a very rigorous contract to this effect.
Alison explained that this was a personal experiment, based on her conviction that social media was warping the perspective of new generations. She was convinced that young people today valued only the perception and response of others to their experiences, and not the actual experiences. She wanted to be proven wrong.
"Will you prove me wrong?" she asked at the end of her video. "I hope you will."
Katya stared at her laptop in shock and confusion. She could travel the world but not post about it, not take a single photo or video. What was the point of that? But then, how could she refuse this incredible opportunity? Her dream really was to travel the world, but also to post about it, to become a famous travel influencer.
It was a terrible dilemma. She convinced herself to accept, then refuse, then accept... Part of her desperately wanted to accept. But if she traveled for a year, she'd have to abandon her vlog. She'd lose the 10,000+ subscribers she'd worked so hard to get.
It was nine months later. Katya had almost forgotten all about Alison's video. She'd been to five more national parks and her subscriber numbers were now over 14,000.
She went online to research her next destination and saw a repost from a famous travel influencer she followed, of a vlog by Wendy's World. Wendy's World? How was that possible? Wendy had stopped posting videos months ago.
She clicked on the video and saw, to her horror, that it was of Wendy and Alison Yang. "We've been travelling the world for six months," said Wendy, beaming "I had to agree not to post about it, as part of an experiment by Alison. But now I've convinced Alison to participate in my experiment, so she can experience life as a travel influencer and understand why we do what we do. Our plan is to visit every country in the world in one year..."
VOCABULARY
-browser: navegador / -vlog: video blog / -accurate: preciso / -to cringe: sentir vergüenza ajena / -wannabe: quiero y no puedo / -to unpause: volver a reproducir / -the catch: el truco / -caveat: advertencia / -ever: nunca jamás. / -to warp: deformar, distorsionar /
