A recent article inTraveller revealed some of those changes. A survey by the world’s largest youth travel agency,StudentUniverse,found that an increasing number of Gen Z travellers are forgoing drinking altogether when they travel,and only 21 per cent of young Australians prioritised partying while they were overseas.

There were multiple reasons stated for that preference – concerns about safety and the desire to stay healthy the main ones – but there was another that I found particularly interesting:to avoid being recorded on social media doing something embarrassing. More than one-quarter of all respondents mentioned it.

That,to me,is pretty sad. You can’t go crazy when you travel any more because there’s a permanent record of everything you do. You can’t experiment,you can’t cut loose,because someone will be there recording it on their phone and it might end up on TikTok,or Snapchat,or Instagram or wherever the youth post content these days. No secrets. No lies.

You might scoff and say they’re not missing out on much. If going crazy means vomiting on your tour cook inside the Bulldog,maybe travel is better now. Maybe,the kids have got the right idea.

But I still think it’s a shame. We don’t have many genuine rites of passage in Australian society,particularly not in Anglo culture. We’re pretty devoid of traditions,we have nothing to mark the passing of ages or the journey into adulthood.

There are also increasing pressures on young people,with the cost of living rising sharply,home ownership getting further and further out of reach,climate change destroying the planet before our eyes. It would be nice to escape that as a young person,to feel you could book a backpacking trip overseas and tap out of your normal life for a while,go somewhere else and be someone else.

Only,social media won’t let you. Gen Z is a global generation;everyone is connected at all times,there’s no switching off or escaping. That’s a tremendous amount of pressure. No wonder they don’t want to lose control.

I’m sure the boozy backpacker trip still exists (just as the Bulldog in Amsterdam still exists),but not to the extent it once did. It’s not normal. It’s certainly not a rite of passage. And maybe if you’re someone like,say,Lucy’s parents that would be a very good thing.

But I still think we’ve lost something.

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