Telling people to put down their smartphone and stop sending status updates when they travel or have a coversation can make you sound like an old crank, I know. But every couple months there’s another study showing that’s a good move. The latest one shows that people who take a “wakeful rest” instead of messing with an electronic device are far more likely to remember details of the experience.

In other words, stop and smell the roses, don’t stop and tweet.

She’s probably going to remember this.

In a study conducted by Michaela Dewar at the University of Edinburg, evidence shows that “activities that we are engaged in for the first few minutes after learning new information really affect how well we remember this information after a week.” In short, those who played a simple video game immediately afterward forgot a lot of key details. Those who gave their brain some time to process it all could recall a lot more. You can see all the details here: Wakeful Rest May Boost Memory.

Besides this explaining why your idiot boss or boyfriend can’t seem to remember a thing you told him because he’s always messing with his phone, it also has implications for travelers. Those who are constantly sharing photos, sending status updates to Facebook, or tweeting out their every experience are recording, but probably not letting their brain absorb as much. Their memories are more shallow. Their experience more ephemeral.

“The researchers suspect that during this 10-minute wakeful rest the brain is consolidating the recent memories, a process in which the brain seals experiences into long-term memory. Without this memory consolidation, a person may forget this information, being unable to pull it up at a later point.”

If you are suffering from social media addition though, maybe you can have it both ways with some time-shifting. Use the trick that most successful travel bloggers rely on: keep the electronics off while you’re experiencing, turn them on during down time later to broadcast.

Doing both at once can mean a lot of lost memories, long before you are supposed to become senile.

(For lots more on this subject and strategies to make your life less frantic, see this post on the book Hamlet’s Blackberry.)

Since this Cheapest Destinations Blog picked up 100 new RSS subscribers in the past month and about 400 new Twitter followers, I thought this would be a good time for a rundown on who runs this site. I’m also a speaker on the kick-off panel at the upcoming TBEX conference (Travel Bloggers Exchange), so a few curious attendees may be popping by for a visit as well.

But first a few fun facts that may be more interesting.

#1 – I used to be a semi-glamorous music business executive. 

With work buddies, circa 1990

Back when the money was rolling, in the pre-Napster days when everyone bought CDs, I worked in marketing at RCA Records, in Nashville and then New York. I hung out with rock stars, country stars, and celebs, but it sure didn’t make me rich. Most of them either, actually. It’s an idiotic business model for most people involved.

#2 – Both parents were teachers and my sister is one now.
So I taught English in Turkey and Korea when I started traveling. It was in my blood I guess.

#3 – My daughter has been to more countries at age 11 than I had been to by age 30.
I got a late start on both her and the travel.

A family trip to the Osa Peninsula, Costa Rica

#4 – I lettered in track & field in high school.
I ran hurdles, triple jump, and 1600-meter relay. But I was also in the marching band and was one of the leads in the senior play. My mom was my art teacher.

#5 – I’ve been an uncredited ghostwriter/collaborator on seven business books.
No glory, but it pays better than writing about travel. My name made it on to one of them, about the business of hip-hop of all things. Here’s a sampling.

#6 – I went to elementary school with Mennonites in rural Virginia.
Lots of them. Boys in buttoned-up plaid shirts and gray slacks, girls in gigham dresses and pigtails, with bonnets on top.

#7 – My late grandfather worked on the Apollo missions that sent astronauts to the moon.
He was an engineer at NASA and helped develop the heat shield that kept the Apollo 11 capsule from burning up upon re-entry.

So anyway…this blog has been running since 2003, started the calendar year after the first edition of The World’s Cheapest Destinations book hit the marketplace. The reason I’ve been writing about so many different countries so far this year is that I’m researching the 4th edition right now. I’m hitting about half the featured countries in the course of one year.

Almost 1,150 posts have gone up since then, so there’s plenty to check out in the archives. I get quoted in the media a lot, I win lots of travel writing awards, and I attend conferences to find out what’s going on with tourism around the world. So hopefully you’ll find that I know what I’m talking about when I dole out advice on how to travel well for less. If you’re new at this, check out my contrarian travel book for getting a great deal every time you take off.

I also know a good bit about what’s worth packing since I’m the editor of Practical Travel Gear. I review two items weekly there and supervise three other bloggers checking out new gear.

In Bulgaria last month

I’m also the editor of Perceptive Travel, a narrative site featuring interesting travel stories from wandering book authors. It’s a perennial award winner (including a big award for “best online travel journalism publication”) and its writers are a staple of “best travel writing” book anthologies.

My media company runs a few other websites that span the budget spectrum. I occasionally still freelance for print and online publications run by others, but not so much anymore. I’ve got enough to do just keeping my own plates spinning without dropping anything.

The home pages of each of the sites listed here have appropriate social media media buttons to follow along and on some of them we do regular giveaways.

Thanks for reading!

The February issue of Perceptive Travel is now out, fresh off our racking up a record six best travel writing awards from the North American Travel Journalists Association. We could just kick back and bask in the glow of our medals, but no, we’re going to keep cranking out interesting, unique, offbeat travel stories for your reading pleasure.

This month Bruce Northam takes us traveling around the Yukon Territory, a place the size of California that has 35,000 people. Want to reinvent yourself or start over? Leave your iPhone in busyland and head north to stake a claim.

Camille Cusumano last brought us the story of a hiker gone missing in Patagonia. This time she visits the seedy side of Buenos Aires at Feria la Salada, otherwise known as the Thieves Market. She won’t be going back…

Becky Garrison, author of Jesus Died for This? tries a pilgrimage to Glendalough in Ireland and finds that it’s going to take some effort to get away from the tourist hordes.

I cue up a worthwhile trio of world music from Brazil and central Africa, while Susan Griffith handles the travel book reviews: two on expatriate experiences in Europe, one with a travel quote for every day of the year +1.

Also we’re giving away a grab bag of travel gear goodies. The newsletter already went out, but you can still join us on Facebook to get in on the action. See the home page for details: Perceptive Travel.

The latest issue of Perceptive Travel contains, as usual, some of the best travel stories on the web. But this time they all focus on other superlatives.

Shelley Seale makes her debut with a story on the people of the Atacama Desert in Chile, living in what is reportedly the driest place on Earth.

Laurie Gough, author of Kiss the Sunset Pig, is back with a piece on what some studies have found to be the happiest place on Earth: Bhutan. Which makes her wonder: Can a country using happiness as a guiding principle really deliver—despite intrusions from the outside world?

Bruce Northam, author of Globetrotter Dogma, returns with a story on Rio in Brazil, but not the Rio you see in all the glossy tourism brochures. But it’s really about a happy dog…

Laurence Mitchell reviews a batch of new world music releases, including one that chronicles the music of Byzantium, I mean Constantinople, I mean Istanbul. Susan Griffith checks out some notable new travel books, on Paris and Central America.

See the whole December 2011 issue here.

As always, we’re giving away a cool prize to newsletter subscribers and Facebook followers. This month it’s two different backpacks from Guerrilla Packs. Two readers are going to get nice post-holiday presents. To figure out how to get in the running, see the home page of Perceptive Travel.

Perceptive Travel is tagged as the “best travel stories from authors on the move” and this month we’ve got something awe-inspiring, something pensive, and something with a very unique point of view.

Michael Buckley went snorkeling with the biggest fish on the planet—whale sharks—off the shore of Donsol in the Philippines. You’ll want to check it out for the photos and video if nothing else.

Beebe Bahrami returns to the land she covers in her books, Spain, but when lost in the countryside she recalls advice from her Persian grandfather. Down a Stream in Iran and Up a Creek in Spain.

In an earlier story, David Drotar wondered what an alien would think when landing in Quebec. Now he’s gone on a bear-watching trip in British Columbia, Canada, but sees it through the eyes of a family of bears and the salmon.

But wait, there’s more! I review some new music, including a snoozer of an album from Iceland’s Bjork and a 20-piece spectacle band from Portland I can’t wait to go see this weekend when they come through my city.

William Caverlee handles the travel book reviews this month, including one on the infamous container of rubber duckies that spilled in the Pacific, the duckies then riding the currents to places far and wide.