Encountered a paywall so apologies if missing some context, but when you say free time do you mean they live far away and need to drive distances to parks?
I’m American and I’m outside all the time. Walking the dog, or walking with my family, taking my daughter to the playground. I work full time and have a family but easily have time to walk every day.
But maybe “outdoors” here means activities like hiking? If so I think I understand what you mean. That would be something most people could only do on weekends.
And 60 years before that dad sat in his chair reading the paper and listening to the radio until bed. Maybe the only thing keeping back the bmi was the dad in this time was smoking like a chimney and grew up slight and malnourished to begin with in the great depression.
All of them if they reduced their television and Internet consumption.
I think a bigger issue is nature isn't so much accessible to many. They paved paradise and put in a parking lot. I'm house hunting and so many neighborhoods don't have sidewalks or parks.
Nature’s boring enough that it’s not really worth the downsides (bugs, travel for most people, humidity/ice/whatever) to go out and “enjoy” it in large stretches of the country.
There are cities where the nicest outdoor areas in 200 miles wouldn’t make the top-100 list of outdoor areas in the same radius, for other cities.
Bugs is a big one. I have a hard time enjoying wherever I’m at if there’s a bunch of mosquitos or wasps around for example, even if I’m wearing repellent.
I guess that means I should move somewhere that’s frequently snowy if being outdoors often is a goal.
Arguably there’s plenty of benefit and enjoyment to be had in the outdoors regardless of whether wherever you are would make a “top-100 list”.
I also think that too many Americans today err on the side of avoiding potentially rewarding activities because of the chance that they might be uncomfortable–stuck in such a narrow comfort zone that’s basically counter to experiencing things that promote happiness and fulfillment.
It's hard for me to relate to this point of view. Sure, my local park isn't the Grand Canyon, but on a day-to-day basis, failing to make the "top-100 list" doesn't impact my enjoyment of the outdoors.
Fresh air, literally. Sunlight during parts of the year. Observing the changing seasons. Seeing plants, and maybe animals. Exercising by myself or in organized sports. Being in a shared space with others in my community enjoying themselves.
These all seem like pretty small asks for an outdoor space. Sure you probably won't appreciate them in a highway median, but I also doubt that most people would have to drive 200 miles to find something like this.
The exception is in the context of a relationship, but you only enter those by meeting rare drop people with good chemistry (which is precluded by staying indoors all the time) or as a coping strategy for low single income (but you're on HN hahaaa $$$).
Where is here? I started camping with my kids when our twins were 2, but we live in SoCal and have an abundance of amazing options within range.
edit/ I've also lived in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Texas, and spent significant time in the Carolinas, Alabama, and New Orleans. I'm stretching my brain to think of a single place where I've spent time that didn't have access to compelling outdoors. Texas is the one that really comes to mind, seeing as there's little public land there.
A few largish “flyover country” cities don’t have many outdoor spaces within a half-day travel that aren’t ugly and generally unpleasant. Wading in a stream? Disgusting mud up to your knees, far deeper than the water was, and an odor that will survive multiple showers despite your being quite certain none of it touched your skin. You learn to avoid all water, because it’s simply gross. “Woods”? Short Mordor-like bunches of trees and if there’s not a well-maintained path you’ll be cutting your way through poison ivy, wicked sticker bushes, and cobwebs every step, while assuredly picking up some ticks. And you’ll be covered in mud if it’s rained in the last 72 hours. You learn to avoid wild areas with trees. Drive a couple counties over to a state park with “falls” in the name? It’s a four-foot drop and more “mud slide” than falls. Nice views as a reward for any of this? LOL.
There are parts of this country that make one long for the emptiness of Kansas. At least there’s a kind of stark beauty in seeing nothing until the Earth curves away at the horizon. And biking on those zero-elevation-change-for-miles arrow-straight country roads can be meditative.
As a city person, I don't really miss nature. I miss the city when I'm out of it.
I'm deeply introverted, but I love the energy and bustle of people, and especially love the brownian motion of ideas and cultures colliding in big cities.
I associate nature with deep loneliness because there are so few people out there, and those who are out there don't really talk to each other. I've been camping, been on hikes, etc. with and without friends, but it's really not my thing. I like going fishing with friends, but forests are not my thing. As a kid I watched a movie about cabin life in Oregon and it left an indelible mark on me: I told myself I never want to live that life. It's so isolating.
I love being around people, even if I don't talk to them. I could sit in a cafe by myself and feel full just feeding of the energy of the overheard conversations and the relationships of people around me.
But as a Chicagoan, I do love talking to people. I love the inconsequential interactions like asking the receptionist how her day was, or the person in line about the weather.
I grew up in a large metropolis, and lived there for 30+ years.
I can't stand it anymore. I found out I really enjoy living in the countryside, with access to some nature.
I associate nature not to loneliness, but to solitude, which I usually find desirable. And the bustle of people around me is deeply annoying. I can enjoy going to a cafe when it is mostly empty. If I start to listen to people talk, I feel an urge to leave.
I wonder if it has something to do with a personal trait, or to the specific metropolitan area I grew up in that made me dislike crowded places so much.
> As a city person, I don't really miss nature. I miss the city when I'm out of it.
Polar opposite here! I dread a landscape of brick, concrete and asphalt. Whenever I visit a large city I feel the need to escape as soon as possible. Large cities contain more people but less community than small centers, in which it's easier to get cozy with the people living around you geographically.
Same here. There's nothing like going out in the city, feel the bustle and let it fill you with energy, and you can meet friends there just as well, or feel lonely in the crowd when so inclined. Because nature by itself doesn't solve our problems, the change of scenery and relaxation do - and that you can actually have anywhere.
Never lived somewhere with a really bad outdoors situation, I take it?
To use your analogy, it’s more like living in a city where the most-attractive person once came in 3rd in an ugliness competition, and also everyone has unpleasant personalities. It’s less that you don’t have any of the best options available, and more that you don’t have any that are better than “still fairly bad”. You visit a buddy few couple states over, rave about how wonderful and pretty all the locals are, and your buddy’s like “dude wtf we’re infamously the ugliest town in this state, and the reputation is deserved, I need you to say these things to some of my local pals so they can have a good laugh”.
Most of the bad parts of nature—mud, the usual unpleasant insects, an ecology dominated by poison ivy and thorn plants of various sorts—without the good parts. Nice, long views, pretty hills or mountains, ocean or nice lakes, dramatic rock formations (even for very modest values of “dramatic”), tall forests that aren’t edge-to-edge carpeted three feet high with poison and thorn plants, rivers and streams that are more than sluggish smelly mud-ditches? None of that. Zero. Not close enough to visit on a normal weekend unless you want to spend twice as much time driving as being in the place you wanted to go. You wanna go outside and enjoy “nature”, you do it somewhere that sees a lawn-mower on a regular basis, and/or is partially paved.
Worse. We paved paradise and put in a completely non-walkable big car hellscape and parking lots to go along with it, so most can’t or won’t walk to do things.
Moving to a walkable area was a game changer for me in so many ways.
Absolutely the case. I moved to Texas for work and quickly moved back home to California. Simply reminding myself that I was so far away from any nice nature was pretty distressing.
> All of them if they reduced their television and Internet consumption.
Huh?
Those are in the evening. I can't pop into nature for an hour and a half after dinner the way I can pop into a TV show. It's like two hours away, if I plan the trains right.
TV and internet has literally nothing to do with it. My ability to schedule an entire Saturday or Sunday does. And not have it pour rain (or be during a snowing freezing month).
You can experience nature just walking around your neighborhood. Even if its in the middle of a city. There’s no need to go full John Muir. Trees a plenty everywhere. Birds and squirrels. Either way, much better to be putting those legs to use than to sit.
You and I clearly live in different neighborhoods. The trees planted in the sidewalk of what is otherwise my concrete jungle does not constitute "nature" by any stretch of the imagination -- not any more than my indoor plants do. And the number of birds and squirrels is roughly zero -- I've got to walk half an hour to a park for any of those.
I love walking around my neighborhood but it's exercise and walking -- it's certainly not nature. Don't confuse the two.
Yeah, I don't get the no ideal thing. Seems to be mainly in southern states, but has been creeping into nicer neighborhoods up north. Some could be because they were rural, but if you look at places around DFW, you see sidewalks just...stop.
Like, do they not expect people to want to walk anywhere or is it just too expensive due to property rights?
Instead, what you end up with are silly trails that are often not lit up at night, paving the way for robbery, rape, etc.
Much better than spending a few bucks on a legit sidewalk. (cough).
I think your second point also feeds into why people trend towards television and internet. It is harder to make the time to go somewhere if it's a long distance to drive and you have other housework tasks that need to be done.
absolutely. pavement is just everywhere. loads and loads of endless pavement in front of every freakin store, whether it's needed or not. It's disgusting and dipressing to be locked in a concrete jungle.
Many people don't spend their evenings watching television. Many spend it working a 2nd or 3rd job, or going to school, or caring for a sick relative, or some combination of the above.
For many nature is far away, a car is unaffordable, and public transportation is non-existent.
It is not at all accurate that all Americans have free time to get outdoors if they simply limit their screen time.
For me, it feels far more subtle. As a kid, I remember roaming my town, playing in the woods, spontaneous trips to a beach, etc.
Now, random kids roaming isn't possible without risking calls to police or child services, accessing nature areas requires arriving early to ensure parking, and getting into a beach needs a reservation made weeks in advance
They may have way too much free time, they just choose to spend it passively watching shows instead of being actively engaged in an activity. Indoors vs outdoors probably doesn't matter as much as how they are choosing to spend their free time in the first place. Are they indoors doing home renovations or art projects? Or simply binging the next new show on the couch?
This is such a silly take, you're taking a real observation that people need to decompress but moralizing it rather than trying to understand it. While some activities you would call active can fill the need to destress the majority of them are passive. Creative hobbies are serious work until you're good enough at them you can turn your brain off while doing them. I can do it with programming but it's also my career and I've spent my 10,000 hours getting there. So people turn to reading, listening to music, podcasts, taking a bath, watching movies and TV, exercising, video games, or scrolling through their phones.
Mindlessly consuming content for hours on end is 'silly'. It's easier than doing something worthwhile, sure. Our society wasted a lot of hours doing idle things yet complains we don't have time to be social or get other things done. People aren't lonely, just too lazy to try. Yet they can watch every episode of Below Deck and feel ok with how they have spent their lives...
The problem isn’t taking time to decompress. Its that there isn’t any time being spent to be active. Most americans are sedentary and its super unhealthy. The fact we’ve established this lifestyle where people sit all day and feel tired from sitting all day and now have to sit all night to relax is terrible for personal health. As an animal we are meant to walk miles and miles foraging for resources and game. If we gave a dog the modern western lifestyle we’d call that animal abuse.
100% agreed. It's sad that we demonize the symptom of people being constantly burnt out which is the constant need to turn brain off and not the thing burning people out which is our work culture.
It's one of the things I never feel right about complaining about because literally every other aspect of being a "knowledge worker" is great but having to use brain all day means at night I'm physically energized but mentally exhausted which sucks for actually doing anything.
even within consumption, a lot of the time i feel spent & dont even want to watch a Good tv show, and intentionally pick something really dumb and pointless.
A minority of people got more into those activities but the US has a population of 330 million and the outdoorsy hotpots have little carrying capacity so now they are swarmed and overwhelmed.
As someone who spends a lot of time on trails, I can always tell when I'm getting within a half mile of a trailhead— I see another person or group of people. The best I can tell is that people want to connect with nature; they don't want to be outside. That's good enough motivation to plan a trip, especially to an easily selectable location. It's not quite enough to turn you into an outdoorsy kind of person, or transform "hiking" into more than just sort of walking around without aim.
The difference between a multi-day backpacking trip and a multi-day road trip that stops at 4 different national parks. Its very easy to be able to "see" beautiful places without "being" in them, if that makes sense.
I think it can be an "escalator" of engagement though, and small exposures can build up to bigger adventures!
I never visited a proper outdoor area until college (grew up in the city). My first time, I was so scared of the unfamiliar trees that I think I screamed when some vine grazed my skin, lol.
A few years (and a few more day hikes) later, I went on my first overnight backpacking trip. Nearly froze to death because our guide didn't check the weather. Had to evac half the group out overnight through the pouring rain. Glad nobody died, but we got real close to frostbite territory. The next trip with the same group, we nearly got shot (pissed off some, uh, rural hunter types) and had to hide in sand dunes until the gunshots stopped... it's a wonder this guiding group stays in business, lol.
Despite all that, backpacking became a lifelong love. I've introduced probably a dozen friends to backpacking, and they're all most impressed by the Jetboil :) These days me and my SO go on a few trips a summer, not quite as much as we were younger, but still.
Being outside implies discomfort, or at least the potential for it. Many want to experience nature without being exposed to the harshness. Probably all of us to some degree.
It's more or less the difference between a tourist and an expat.
They make off-road Segways, lol. Just don't be like this guy, who bought the company and then drove one off a cliff... https://www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna39377851
i feel like 3/4 of the people at ski resorts are on green groomers for 2 runs then day drinking. i think its just a place to be.
for both points, i think some of it is driven by social media too and it doesn't take a lot for those places to feel full. are outdoorsy people listening to bluetooth radios on trails? doubt it, probably some attention seeker looking for social media content
There's a lot of truth to this. Ski resorts will be slammed at 9am, rental lines out the wazoo, beginner runs flooded, food court swamped at 11-12, but the real solid runs at 1pm are free and clear. Seems like most people show up, do a couple green runs or lessons and leave before the day even ends.
Obviously this depends on the region and weather, but in my experience the best areas on the mountain are tracked out and bumpy by the afternoon. Once the sun really starts hitting the snow it can get lumpier and tougher compared to fresh stuff, and more frequent / larger ice patches appear on hard-packed runs.
If you have a season pass it doesn't make sense to ski the worse conditions, since you can just go back another morning. There's also the desire to beat the traffic leaving the resort, which can be brutal in some places.
One thing i really liked about SF was I had 3-5 parks walking distance depending on how far you wanted to walk. (no they werent filled with homeless people) Its also something that keeps me in california. The author is in brooklyn, near my family, and every time i go back to visit i go crazy. There isn't anywhere out doors to go. In the winter its cold, everyone just stays inside. Even with family, the whole point of visiting, it sucks. Big cities are fun for a few days but I need to be back where I can walk around with space.
Have you ever visited the Adirondacks or hiked parts of the Appalachian Trail? I haven't spent much time on the east coast, but there's a little outdoor stuff, no? And I bet the fall colors are beautiful there in Central Park?
I think the point was "in walking distance". The Adirondacks from NYC is an entire planned trip, with rental car. Maybe there are more accessible outdoor activities near the city, but that in particular is definitely not a spur of the moment trip.
Yeah there are places to be outdoors, I don't think its as casual access as California while living close to the things make density nice. I can go on a few different hikes right now within a 10 min drive of my house. I go on short hikes on work breaks. I also have an international airport 30 minutes away.
I think this author is talking about the middle ground between remoteness with nature access and living in a place like brooklyn.
Is it because of the work culture being too focussed on long working hours and lack of annual leaves? I don't really have any data to back it up. Just wondering if it's getting worse.
I don't agree with that. It's at its root a cultural issue. People need a realignment of values so that being outside or amongst others is a better use of their time than the status quo. From that perhaps a rebalance of work and life will result but I don't think starting there would move the needle much.
The work culture isn't putting kids in front of computer screens and discouraging outdoor activities.
It's not even something you can control as a parent. My kid, 16 years old, walks to school on his own - but he's always back right after classes. And it's not that he's an outcast. That's just how they roll in the SF Bay Area. Other kids go home too, or they are shuttled by their parents to some organized after-school activities.
In LA county it seems super common to see teens going out on their own. Not sure whats different up north. I think most students get free metro passes. Its super common to see teenagers riding the trains or busses, if I’d guess on account of the cost of insurance here for young drivers.
How much of that is real need and nostalgia for church and farm life?
Let’s use technology to give people more time off, see what outside the box things they come up with.
Everyone around me is an expert in some highly complex thing and we all go work in offices when there’s problems on our street the architects, general contractors, and electrical engineers could fix. But line must go up or we’re all commie trash, or some dumb shit.
I live a rural life where my primary social outlet is church and I have a farm. It's so much better. I have a community of 200 people who I love, and maybe 20 people in my immediate circle. Let's do what actually works.
I wonder what would happen thirty years after a society decided it wasn’t safe to let kids “go play outside”.
Would people associate the outdoors with discomfort and danger? Would they forget how to explore and be curious? Would they have no nostalgia to inform them of what they’re missing?
I'm not sure where you live, but try googling about the terms "free camping" or "dispersed camping" for your area. There are lots of natural areas (edit: in a lot of places) where you don't need a special permit to pitch your tent.
Hypothesis: population growth looks like /, while public land growth looks like - or \ (e.g. cursory search for statistic shows federal acreage drop of 4.9% from 1990 to 2018)
I've been in tech for over a decade and started working from home post-pandemic. Living close to nature, I thought I'd be outdoors more, but no, I found myself desk-bound from dawn to dusk. It made stepping outside feel like a chore, and my breaks were often spent scrolling through reels. It didn't hit me until I started feeling down everyday—I was spiralling into some monotonous, lonely hell. To break the cycle, I scheduled daily walks. The walks, coupled with casual chats with passersby/neighbours, really lifted my spirits. It's a change I wish I'd made sooner.
The best part of working from home is truly seizing the morning thanks to not having to commute or put on business casual. Little walks before works are liable to turn into full blown 3 hour hikes at dawn before long. Very energizing to start the day at 9am and feel like you’ve already had plenty of sunlight and activity, especially this time of year when the sun sets so early.
It just doesn’t seem like we have safe public places anymore. Some hood rats killed and raped a mentally disabled woman in a park near me. I want to retreat inside and protect my family.
I want to like the article. I subscribe to the Atlantic, but the article ends abruptly and raises some disparate study results which awkwardly point to some sort of hazy thesis. If we spend more time outdoors, we are more connected and less lonely? It's the trend of "asking questions" rather than making a clear statement. Can being outside increase our potential to be happier and more aware of our community? Probably. Maybe? That's it. That's the article.
More seriously though, I feel this in my soul. I've worked remotely since pre-pandemic, so there's no need to leave the house to get money. I bought a weight rack, bench press, and created a solid at-home gym. Grocery runs were replaced with delivery during pandemic and never reverted. I'm currently single and more interested in technical passion projects than pursuing a partner. I've never owned a vehicle.
It's shocking to me how this confluence of factors has made it all too easy to go a week (or two!) without going outside! I've been glued to my computer since I was a pre-teen, but only in the past few years has everything come together such that I'm entirely self-sufficient indoors. Existing outdoors is no longer a natural byproduct of my existence!
FWIW, I do feel that there are benefits to going outside. I'm not championing my approach - just noting what's occurring. I feel our biology has not evolved at the same pace as our technology and I sense myself more at peace when I go for a run on the beach - even if I'm diligent with my Vitamin D supplementation :)
Of course the great luxury that the American lifestyle offers is complete isolation from others. If you're a home owner, you're more than likely able to afford an in-home gym, any entertainment through your TV or computer, and order any food pre-cooked or groceries.
On one hand, I enjoy being around new and familiar people when the context is supposed to be social, like a meetup or a bar.
On the other hand, I hate being forced to be social in non-social situations or when I want to be left alone, like in an airplane or at a restaurant (I really enjoy eating by myself; always have).
I wonder if "being lonelier" these days means people are on their phones being in their zone when they want to be left alone instead of being forced to strike up small-talk, which makes me wonder whether people have always wanted this privacy but the technology wasn't available.
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[ 3.3 ms ] story [ 175 ms ] threadI’m American and I’m outside all the time. Walking the dog, or walking with my family, taking my daughter to the playground. I work full time and have a family but easily have time to walk every day.
But maybe “outdoors” here means activities like hiking? If so I think I understand what you mean. That would be something most people could only do on weekends.
I think a bigger issue is nature isn't so much accessible to many. They paved paradise and put in a parking lot. I'm house hunting and so many neighborhoods don't have sidewalks or parks.
There are cities where the nicest outdoor areas in 200 miles wouldn’t make the top-100 list of outdoor areas in the same radius, for other cities.
I guess that means I should move somewhere that’s frequently snowy if being outdoors often is a goal.
I also think that too many Americans today err on the side of avoiding potentially rewarding activities because of the chance that they might be uncomfortable–stuck in such a narrow comfort zone that’s basically counter to experiencing things that promote happiness and fulfillment.
Fresh air, literally. Sunlight during parts of the year. Observing the changing seasons. Seeing plants, and maybe animals. Exercising by myself or in organized sports. Being in a shared space with others in my community enjoying themselves.
These all seem like pretty small asks for an outdoor space. Sure you probably won't appreciate them in a highway median, but I also doubt that most people would have to drive 200 miles to find something like this.
You can do all of these by just opening a window.
>but I also doubt that most people would have to drive 200 miles to find something like this.
You're right, I don't have to drive anywhere, I can stay indoors and get all that by opening a window.
The Earth, like socializing outside, is jejune. We are adapting for the new world.
The exception is in the context of a relationship, but you only enter those by meeting rare drop people with good chemistry (which is precluded by staying indoors all the time) or as a coping strategy for low single income (but you're on HN hahaaa $$$).
edit/ I've also lived in Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia, and Texas, and spent significant time in the Carolinas, Alabama, and New Orleans. I'm stretching my brain to think of a single place where I've spent time that didn't have access to compelling outdoors. Texas is the one that really comes to mind, seeing as there's little public land there.
There are parts of this country that make one long for the emptiness of Kansas. At least there’s a kind of stark beauty in seeing nothing until the Earth curves away at the horizon. And biking on those zero-elevation-change-for-miles arrow-straight country roads can be meditative.
I'm deeply introverted, but I love the energy and bustle of people, and especially love the brownian motion of ideas and cultures colliding in big cities.
I associate nature with deep loneliness because there are so few people out there, and those who are out there don't really talk to each other. I've been camping, been on hikes, etc. with and without friends, but it's really not my thing. I like going fishing with friends, but forests are not my thing. As a kid I watched a movie about cabin life in Oregon and it left an indelible mark on me: I told myself I never want to live that life. It's so isolating.
I love being around people, even if I don't talk to them. I could sit in a cafe by myself and feel full just feeding of the energy of the overheard conversations and the relationships of people around me.
But as a Chicagoan, I do love talking to people. I love the inconsequential interactions like asking the receptionist how her day was, or the person in line about the weather.
I can't stand it anymore. I found out I really enjoy living in the countryside, with access to some nature.
I associate nature not to loneliness, but to solitude, which I usually find desirable. And the bustle of people around me is deeply annoying. I can enjoy going to a cafe when it is mostly empty. If I start to listen to people talk, I feel an urge to leave.
I wonder if it has something to do with a personal trait, or to the specific metropolitan area I grew up in that made me dislike crowded places so much.
Polar opposite here! I dread a landscape of brick, concrete and asphalt. Whenever I visit a large city I feel the need to escape as soon as possible. Large cities contain more people but less community than small centers, in which it's easier to get cozy with the people living around you geographically.
Large cities comprise neighborhoods where lots of community is found. Chicago has 77 and very warm.
That's "why bother with romance when you almost certainly won't be with one of the 100 most attractive people in the world" logic.
To use your analogy, it’s more like living in a city where the most-attractive person once came in 3rd in an ugliness competition, and also everyone has unpleasant personalities. It’s less that you don’t have any of the best options available, and more that you don’t have any that are better than “still fairly bad”. You visit a buddy few couple states over, rave about how wonderful and pretty all the locals are, and your buddy’s like “dude wtf we’re infamously the ugliest town in this state, and the reputation is deserved, I need you to say these things to some of my local pals so they can have a good laugh”.
Why bother, indeed.
I'm guessing I probably have (by your definition), as a matter of fact.
But what exactly is a "really bad outdoors situation" anyway?
Really bad.
Moving to a walkable area was a game changer for me in so many ways.
Huh?
Those are in the evening. I can't pop into nature for an hour and a half after dinner the way I can pop into a TV show. It's like two hours away, if I plan the trains right.
TV and internet has literally nothing to do with it. My ability to schedule an entire Saturday or Sunday does. And not have it pour rain (or be during a snowing freezing month).
I love walking around my neighborhood but it's exercise and walking -- it's certainly not nature. Don't confuse the two.
Like, do they not expect people to want to walk anywhere or is it just too expensive due to property rights?
Instead, what you end up with are silly trails that are often not lit up at night, paving the way for robbery, rape, etc.
Much better than spending a few bucks on a legit sidewalk. (cough).
For many nature is far away, a car is unaffordable, and public transportation is non-existent.
It is not at all accurate that all Americans have free time to get outdoors if they simply limit their screen time.
Now, random kids roaming isn't possible without risking calls to police or child services, accessing nature areas requires arriving early to ensure parking, and getting into a beach needs a reservation made weeks in advance
It's one of the things I never feel right about complaining about because literally every other aspect of being a "knowledge worker" is great but having to use brain all day means at night I'm physically energized but mentally exhausted which sucks for actually doing anything.
even within consumption, a lot of the time i feel spent & dont even want to watch a Good tv show, and intentionally pick something really dumb and pointless.
Maybe the rejection of notions of design like that are partially to blame.
What do you mean by this?
I think it can be an "escalator" of engagement though, and small exposures can build up to bigger adventures!
I never visited a proper outdoor area until college (grew up in the city). My first time, I was so scared of the unfamiliar trees that I think I screamed when some vine grazed my skin, lol.
A few years (and a few more day hikes) later, I went on my first overnight backpacking trip. Nearly froze to death because our guide didn't check the weather. Had to evac half the group out overnight through the pouring rain. Glad nobody died, but we got real close to frostbite territory. The next trip with the same group, we nearly got shot (pissed off some, uh, rural hunter types) and had to hide in sand dunes until the gunshots stopped... it's a wonder this guiding group stays in business, lol.
Despite all that, backpacking became a lifelong love. I've introduced probably a dozen friends to backpacking, and they're all most impressed by the Jetboil :) These days me and my SO go on a few trips a summer, not quite as much as we were younger, but still.
Ya gotta start somewhere! That's all I'm saying.
It's more or less the difference between a tourist and an expat.
for both points, i think some of it is driven by social media too and it doesn't take a lot for those places to feel full. are outdoorsy people listening to bluetooth radios on trails? doubt it, probably some attention seeker looking for social media content
If you have a season pass it doesn't make sense to ski the worse conditions, since you can just go back another morning. There's also the desire to beat the traffic leaving the resort, which can be brutal in some places.
Also, hiking and skiing are not exactly the most social activities.
I think this author is talking about the middle ground between remoteness with nature access and living in a place like brooklyn.
It's not even something you can control as a parent. My kid, 16 years old, walks to school on his own - but he's always back right after classes. And it's not that he's an outcast. That's just how they roll in the SF Bay Area. Other kids go home too, or they are shuttled by their parents to some organized after-school activities.
How much of that is real need and nostalgia for church and farm life?
Let’s use technology to give people more time off, see what outside the box things they come up with.
Everyone around me is an expert in some highly complex thing and we all go work in offices when there’s problems on our street the architects, general contractors, and electrical engineers could fix. But line must go up or we’re all commie trash, or some dumb shit.
Would people associate the outdoors with discomfort and danger? Would they forget how to explore and be curious? Would they have no nostalgia to inform them of what they’re missing?
Maybe we’re finding out?
More seriously though, I feel this in my soul. I've worked remotely since pre-pandemic, so there's no need to leave the house to get money. I bought a weight rack, bench press, and created a solid at-home gym. Grocery runs were replaced with delivery during pandemic and never reverted. I'm currently single and more interested in technical passion projects than pursuing a partner. I've never owned a vehicle.
It's shocking to me how this confluence of factors has made it all too easy to go a week (or two!) without going outside! I've been glued to my computer since I was a pre-teen, but only in the past few years has everything come together such that I'm entirely self-sufficient indoors. Existing outdoors is no longer a natural byproduct of my existence!
FWIW, I do feel that there are benefits to going outside. I'm not championing my approach - just noting what's occurring. I feel our biology has not evolved at the same pace as our technology and I sense myself more at peace when I go for a run on the beach - even if I'm diligent with my Vitamin D supplementation :)
Interesting times we're in, to be sure.
On the other hand, I hate being forced to be social in non-social situations or when I want to be left alone, like in an airplane or at a restaurant (I really enjoy eating by myself; always have).
I wonder if "being lonelier" these days means people are on their phones being in their zone when they want to be left alone instead of being forced to strike up small-talk, which makes me wonder whether people have always wanted this privacy but the technology wasn't available.