Video of Nancy’s talk: The Smart Camino: Pilgrimage in the Internet Age (Jan 2017, London)
By Nancy L. Frey
September 2017

In January 2017, I gave the keynote address at the Confraternity of St James’ Annual General Meeting in London titled The Smart Camino: Pilgrimage in the Internet Age. In the talk I briefly review some general changes I’ve noticed over the last 25 years and then present my research on the incorporation of new media technology into the Camino and how this has impacted being a pilgrim. The rise of the Internet is the single most important change in the Camino during this period and has dramatically impacted how people engage with the pilgrimage experience before, during and after the Camino is over.
The video is long. To help facilitate listening to the parts that are of most interest, I’ve broken down the video into segments and themes. Please let me know if you have any questions or observations.

0:00-1:00 - Intro to video
1:00-4:35 - Intro about talk and Nancy’s 25 years’ experience on Camino
4:35-5:30 - Nature of change on Camino
5:30-22:15 - General Changes on the Camino over the last 25 years
     • 6:55 - Pilgrim’s Office and Statistics
     • 7:45 - Numbers
     • 8:27 -  Sex/Gender
     • 8:50 -  Internationalization
     • 10:11 - Mode of Travel
     • 10:50 - Roads Traveled and Development of other routes
     • 11:44 - Acquisition of the Compostela Certificate & Certificate of Distance
     • 14:18 - Motivations and Expectations
     • 16:33 - Infrastructure
     • 17:50 - John, the Pilgrim Helper and Red tape
     • 18:29 - Equipment
     • 19:13 - Invasion of our Attentional Space
     • 19:42 - Graffiti & Pokemon Go
     • 21:08 - The Cathedral: Security, protecting patrimony and limited access
     • 21:33 - What happened to the wild dogs?
22:15-23:38 - Changes related to Internet Age. Tech is a tool but not a neutral tool.
23:38-26:44 - Pilgrimage/Camino is a Rite of Passage with three stages: Prep, During, Return. “While the physical component has remained relatively the same, for most people the mental component has changed dramatically…” The Camino in the Cloud.
26:44 – 35:47 - Stage 1: Preparation for the Camino in the Internet Age. Anxiety is normal. Information overload, we overly complicate the Camino, developing pilgrim identity pre-Camino
     • 33:12 - What to take and packing lists
35:52 – 1:02:15 - Stage 2: Being on the Camino
     • 35:52 - Outcomes of preparation and spectrum of mobile tech usage
     • 38:45 - Experience of time and place impacted, Incorporation of “Tech time”; bracketed time away disrupted, stay inside comfort zone
     • 42:56 - Internet age pilgrims have new needs and new neediness; my sacred tech time; increase virtual connections and decrease face-to-face connections
     • 47:10 - Impact on Camino community and social relations
     • 49:53 - Relationship to Home; the importance of “missing” and “longing”; collaborative pilgrimages
     • 53:48 - Digital Detox pilgrimages
     • 56:25 - Shift in thinking and expectations about “what is the Camino?”; controlling the Camino and fear management; “not having a bed” anxiety; having a “Trip Advisor” Camino; dilution of the power of our experiences
     • 1:00:30 - Tech industry encourages us to trust tech and not ourselves; WiFi App; Progressively outsourcing skills to phone and atrophying those abilities within ourselves.
1:02:15-1:05 - Reaching Santiago – transition point; experiences mediated by phones; losing trust in our memories; capturing moments vs contemplating moments
1:05-1:11 - Stage 3: The Return Home
1:11-1:14:59 - Conclusions