A scientist mined Reddit to analyze tourist behavior. Here’s what he learned

It has been found that the site is good for more than just figuring out if you are the asshole. The online network can show us how to be more responsible travelers.

Tourist caught doing spectacularly stupid thing is a story genre that has increased in recent years. From tourists skinny-dipping in a war memorial fountain in Rome to beachgoers harassing Hawaiian monk seals in Honolulu, there's a news story about it almost every week.

Academics are using these stories to better understand the impact tourists have on the communities they visit. The social representation theory was entered. The theory contends with how we grapple with and understand hot topics.

Dr. Shaheer was a researcher at the forefront of modern social representation theory and worked for the Ministry of Tourism in theMaldives for a long time. He is fascinated by controversial and thought provoking ideas. There is a researcher who will find controversy. It's social media.

Shaheer spent months manually combing through 10 subreddits with names like 'Oh man, Tourists...Why you gotta be like that?' and 'What's the worst case of tourist' to complete his research paper.

He read, scrutinized and categorized thousands of comments from users around the world in order to make them angry at tourists. This Berlin resident was not a fan of selfies.

The people are taking selfies in front of the war memorial. It's so disrespectful. There is a memorial to the Holocaust in Berlin. It is there to remind you of the suffering and deaths of people and not to give you a new Facebook profile picture.

Shaheer used comments like this to define 13 different tourist behavior categories. It reads like a roll call of the world's most obnoxious travelers: Culture disregarders, disrupters, litterers, safety ignorers, host abusers, drunkards, destroyers, reckless drivers, animal abusers, queue cutter, photo clickers.

For his PhD, Shaheer looked at the use of social media in tourism boycotts, but for this project, he used the platform to mine the data. Users are more likely to share unvarnished opinions with the anonymity of the forums.

There is a lot of written data on Reddit. He says it is like going down a rabbit hole. It leads you down a lot of different paths. I had to keep my mouth shut.

Shaheers likes to read about what's happening around the world even though he doesn't have an account When I have a question about a community, I go to the site to read about it.

Shaheer eliminated any vague data because of the limitations of social media data.

Social media is encouraging many travelers to behave irresponsibly. But on the flip side, there’s a clear opportunity to harness social media as an agent of change.

When conducting any type of research, certain assumptions are made, and this research is no different. Social media data can be used for research ethics.

Shaheer says that his research is based on social media and interviews. They want to know how to trust data from social media. I asked them if they could trust people when they could just tell you something.

The data shows that the desire to capture images for social media is driving much of the behavior. If you want to travel more sensibly, consider how social media is affecting your choices.

Shaheer says that photography is connected to a lot of problematic behaviors. A photo clicker who ignores signs to take a risky selfies will become a safety ignorer and destroy an ancient rock formation.

He says, "Stopping in the middle of the road to take a picture in front of oncoming traffic or breaking a 2,000-year-old statue just to take a picture of it..."

Dr. Becken agrees that social media encourages travelers to act irresponsibly. Social media can be used as an agent of change.

Tourism authorities could use social media to encourage people to pick up litter on the beach. She says that we all need to think about the images we share on social media while travelling, especially any images taken in areas of natural, religious, or cultural significance to locals.

The challenge of posting before-and-after pics of nature after being cleared of litter shows how social media can be used to shape tourist behaviors.

A recent Tourism New Zealand social advocacy campaign is an example. In order to draw visitors away from popular areas straining under crowds of tourists, the accompanying #Do Something New Zealand has been used on social media more than 100,000 times.

Shaheer says avoiding contributing to the problem can be as simple as traveling in the off season or avoiding tourism hot spots. He says that there is a community that needs a life of their own. They don't want to have to confront tourists when they go to a restaurant

It is possible to know what not to do and not do it while traveling. It is important to read about a destination's culture, people, traditions, environment and laws before booking a trip. Do you know where you're going? It doesn't sound like much but it makes a difference. She says that a tourist should be aware of what is happening in a country. If you are a responsible traveler, you wouldn't have long showers. Understanding the context of where you go and then acting appropriately is what it is about.

What you see on social media is only a small representation of what you will experience when you are there. You are less likely to offend or disrupt communities if you are well informed about local issues.

Jo Stewart is related to the author.

Jo Stewart is an Australian travel writer who spends a lot of time at airports. She has traveled to all seven continents and is happy to mix it up at both ends.