While travel and online gaming might have been considered more bohemian pursuits a couple of decades ago, they are now activities that have successfully branched into a mainstream audience.
You could argue that gaming has never really been on the niche fringe circles. It’s always had incredible popularity, but it wasn’t until the rise of online gaming that it truly branched out from its usual demographic. Twenty years ago, the idea that gaming could shape a modern lifestyle wasn’t a conversation that would’ve carried much weight, but in 2025, it’s a different story.
Social Media Impact
Social media sites have become integral for those looking to travel the world. While I enjoy traveling somewhere, roaming around, and finding places of my own accord, some people like to plan their trip meticulously based on TikToks and YouTube videos they’ve been watching in the months leading up to their trip. Online gaming is the same—YouTube and other sites like Twitch have played a monumental role in bringing the entire industry into the digital realm.
While established areas of online gaming, such as casino gaming, have been able to adapt to a range of mobile app and payment method advancements, the changes to online gaming have been staggering. Dunder Casino NZ showcases some of the advances we’ve seen in the online casino world. Still, it also signals how the move toward digital dominance has resulted in seismic changes in smaller markets like New Zealand and larger, prominent online casino gaming markets in the US and Europe.
Key Changes
While gaming companies tirelessly worked to get online connectivity up and running in the gaming world, the only people who could make a living in the gaming industry were those who worked for distribution or design companies.
Granted, these industries continued to grow significantly over the last 30 years, but video gaming was a technical and specialist industry unless you had a specific skill in game design, manufacturing, or marketing.
Gaming was a budding industry, too, and while home video consoles were revolutionizing the world, there wasn’t widespread adoption and access to online gaming; it was an expensive hobby rather than an accessible one, but this changed throughout the early 21st century. Online gaming changed all of that.
It resulted in a wave of competitive professional video gamers, many of whom were quickly facing off against each other online, and video gaming companies were more than keen to tap into this market. Flicking through a list of the top-earning video gamers highlights just how much potential now exists in the world of professional video gaming, or eSports, as it is better known.
Another occasionally overlooked factor is that it has created a huge, buzzing economy. Stadiums sell out, and eSports companies have hosted stadium sell-out tournaments in Shanghai, Seoul, New York, and London.
It’s a truly global business, and this has helped elevate gaming above the idea that it is something for a specific niche of people. Gaming is now shaping a modern lifestyle, especially for those pro video gamers who live and breathe these tournaments and have made millions of dollars.
The Restorative Nature of Travel
Yes, we know, it’s a term that is painfully cliche. But in a world where so many people are glued to social media, the restorative nature of travel has taken on an entirely new look. Social media can be great for getting an idea of areas and places you’d like to travel to, but influencers are really quite annoying, aren’t they? Or is it just me who thinks that.
Plenty of places do not look like they’re meant to, based on TikToks and YouTube shorts of them, so use them as a guide. I know I might be sounding bitter here, but I don’t enjoy places with overtourism. Anyway, I digress. Traveling is shaping modern lifestyles tremendously, primarily through its accessibility and many ways to do it cheaply.
Cost is a huge part of this. While this pendulum has started swinging the other way of late, with travel becoming a lot more expensive than it used to be a decade ago, it’s still cheaper, relatively speaking, than it would’ve been 40 years ago, hence why it’s been able to play a significant role in shaping modern lifestyles.
Influencers have been able to turn their travels into detailed video diaries. It’s meant that people can vlog and blog their way around the world. Prior to the Internet, this simply wasn’t an avenue. Sure, there were travel programs on TV, but only a select few presenters could turn them into their jobs. Nowadays, it’s become a lifestyle for thousands of people who use their social media platforms as their primary source of income as they travel the world. Lucky for some.
Negatives of Travel & Gaming Becoming Modern Lifestyle Trends
Social media will continue to shape online gaming and travel. It’s almost impossible to imagine a world without it. Modern lifestyles will mold around social media trends, just as they have for the last 15 to 20 years—that’s a given. That’s how dominant social media now is. It doesn’t matter if it is travel, online gaming, finance, you name it.
Travel is hard-wired into our DNA, and while it might not be for everyone, social media has made it a lot easier for people to post selfies and pictures on their accounts and advertise travel destinations. It’s become an aesthetic and a lifestyle. For some people, it’s an activity they do simply to tell people they’re doing it rather than out of any particular love of travel. That’s my view anyway.
Any form of long-distance travel should be viewed as a rite of passage to learn about the world, understand cultures, and understand people. Posting every waking minute on your Instagram account just to make people jealous is not what travel has ever been about.
In gaming, addiction is becoming more prevalent. Casino gaming, obviously, comes with serious addiction warnings—and you should never gamble with money you can’t afford to lose. However, video gaming addiction is something that is less understood, as it hasn’t been around as long, and just like so many other things in life, moderation is crucial. So, these are things to weigh up if they’re becoming integral parts of your lifestyle.
Final Thoughts
We don’t want to end on a negative note—there are clearly pros and cons to online gaming and travel, and for those who can partake in both with good intentions, they are great additions to a modern lifestyle.
Travel is important as it is one of the key ways to stop people from becoming ignorant in an increasingly hostile world. On the flip side, gaming is a way to unwind. Although there are issues surrounding chronic usage, it is a much less destructive form of entertainment than other avenues people explore. When implemented correctly, gamers can create a well-rounded and well-balanced lifestyle.
