We spend a lot of time looking at screens. Our kids certainly do. In 2021, American tweens looked at screens for 5 hours and 33 minutes a day, and teens for 8 hours and 39 minutes a day. And what about adults? How many hours have you been staring at a screen today? My phone tells me I used it for 4 hours and 20 minutes per day last week. And that doesn’t include time that I am looking at my laptop or TV, which I don’t track.
I am horrified by those numbers. It’s not that I’m a Luddite. I need my computer for work and school like everyone else, and I still have social media accounts. But, there’s plenty of good evidence that the apps we use and shows we watch are designed to keep us captivated. What concerns me is what we’re NOT seeing when our attention is glued to our screens. We’re missing a lot.
I’ve started reading the works of some American nature writers: Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Drew Lanham, and Robin Wall Kimmerer. What struck me right away was that these people knew the names of so many plants and animals, and they spoke of them with familiarity and reverence, as if they were dear friends or honored guests. I admit that I have to keep Google open while reading so that I can look up these flora and fauna. I mean, who knows what Dutchman’s breeches or witch hazel or bloodroot look like? Much less a newt? Seriously, how many flowers or trees can you identify by name? How many species of bugs or birds or beasts? For me, it’s not that many.
Our deep ignorance of our 8 million fellow species is linked to the fact that we don’t spend much time in nature. Our kids certainly don’t. One study reported that American children spend only 7 minutes a day in unstructured outdoor play. So, that’s less than an hour playing outside per week for the average kid. Ok so, what about adults? How much time do you spend outside in a week? Another study found that most American adults spend 5 or less hours outdoors each week. That’s less time outside per week than the typical 10-year-old spends on a screen per day.
We’re not just losing knowledge of nature. We’re actually losing nature. According to the United Nations, human activity has “severely altered” 75% of land on earth and 66% of ocean environments. Many species are threatened and on their way to extinction: approximately 30% of marine mammals, 40% of amphibians, 33% of reef-forming corals and 10% of insects. Even fireflies are at risk in Indiana! All of that destruction can be linked to our fossil-fuel-dependent human society. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist (or an environmental scientist, for that matter) to realize that this level of destruction is not good for our ecosystems - on which humans also rely!
How did we get into this mess? Marine biologist Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson says, “I think when the thing that you love is threatened, the natural reaction is to try to save it.” But, we can’t love what we don’t know. I propose that spending more time in nature – getting to know it by name - might be the best route to preserving environmental and human health.
Spring is well underway. The birds are singing; the flowers are blooming. There’s so much to see; so much to love; so much to save. Let’s not miss out because we can’t look away from our screens.
Music: "Blackbird" by the Beatles
