Feels to me like romanticising certain experiences more than they have merit. Yes I've also traveled before the Internet, and frankly we just sought information from books and locals or friends that had gone before. In some ways collecting the information was slower but less prone to gaming via online methods/interests. There were also several regions where taking the tuk-tuk to the non existent waterfall was a pretty good way to end up in very bad to your physical safety situations, and burdening the locals with bailing someone one out of their own 'exploration'. Saying this from having to rescue several brits from risk of death from dehydration and sunstroke.