Facebook group that allows users to travel the world.

The novel coronavirus has spread across the world, affecting millions and causing various countries to fight it by practicing social distancing and implementing lockdowns. As stores and workplaces remain shut, people are staying confined to their homes, and perhaps, their phones. Even as we hope for life to crawl back to normalcy over the next few months, travel seems like a distant dream.

Facebook, the social media platform which saw a boom in the early 2010’s by millennials, and then subsequent abandoning when older generations joined and spammed it with baby photos and pyramid schemes, seems to be thriving again.

This renewal in the activity is partly due to groups like ‘View from my window‘, a wholesome group that consists of nearly 2.3 million members. The group allows users across the world to post one photo of the view outside their window, with a simple set of rules: ‘No video, no people, no zoom.’ Just post the view as you see it.

It was created by Amsterdam-based graphic designer and avid traveler Barbara Duriau on March 22, with the intention of connecting people from all over and bringing them together during the global pandemic.

“I realized that every day I was looking at the same view from the same window,” Duriau explained. “Due to the coronavirus crisis, we are all stuck at home, glued to the same window, looking out at the same view: a building, a wall, a small garden, the mountains, a pool, or the ocean for the lucky ones. The only thing that changes in this view is the sky.”

Each post picks up countless comments with lightning speed from people all over the world saying hello from their own location and sharing words of positivity and support.

The group’s founder exclaimed that after a few days, “the amount of work involved had gone crazy!”
Barbara then enlisted the help of 24 volunteers, mostly women from Belgium and Texas, who now sift through thousands of photos per day to make sure they adhere to the rules.

Every picture shows something wondrous — from the sunny streets of Barcelona to the snowy Alps — leaving us awestruck and reminding us of all the diversity in the world.

Some of the photographs have rare sightings of wildlife.

As always, all good things come with a catch. “We notice that Israel’s posts and photos receive hateful or inappropriate comments,” Duriau posted on April 18. “The Israeli-Palestinian conflict has no place in this group.”

The team had to disable comments on posts from Israel and Palestine due to hate speech, as peace is non-negotiable here.

Nevertheless, the group is a safe space and photo haven for many.
“It’s been really cool to look at other people’s photos because my husband and I have actually traveled a whole lot and it’s been really fun for us to see places we have traveled to internationally,” said Sarah Hill of Arrowbear Lake, posting a picture of a snowy landscape in mid-April.

Although tied to a tumultuous moment, the group might have a life beyond the COVID-19 pandemic as Duriau says she would like to organize a nomad exhibition that would visit some of the countries featured in the group.

“Another possible project is to create a book and a calendar (since users give up their image rights by posting) that would be a souvenir from this crazy period. A part of the benefits would go to an organization that I still have to choose.” she continues.

There are also some really heartwarming stories!

For some, the group with views out of people’s windows is about hope. It tells them that they are not alone in this, and gives them hope that one day when the crisis ends they will be able to walk out into the view, unafraid.

These are just a small portion of all the marvelous landscapes from the group. To see more, head to the View From My Window Facebook page, and take a trip around the world.