Is modern technology making nature obsolete?...Americans take great pride in our national parks. But we’re failing at passing on that love of nature on to the next generation. Last year, national parks and monuments hosted about 283 million visitors. But that’s 4 million fewer than the record set in 1999, when the US population was smaller. An even scarier trend: the number of younger visitors is declining, and park rangers note that more visitors are rushing past the wonders of nature to get to the gift shops or nearby theme parks. The young generation would rather stick their noses in iPads and smartphones than look up and see the Grand Canyon or the lush, Smoky Mountain forests or majestic Monument Valley. If kids don’t learn to love the outdoors, why will they care about preserving nature when they’re grown? Maybe it’s time to pull them out of their virtual realities and take them on a real family camping adventure. If you can’t do it now, just a campout in the back yard is a start. Teach them some silly campfire songs that weren’t downloaded from iTunes. Maybe they’ll learn the outdoors can be fun, if you can just get them…”L-O-L-ing.”
Posted on: Mon, 26 Aug 2013 23:30:00 +0000
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