High Tech or No Tech: Should You Unplug in National Parks? | National Geographic
How much more I spend on my phone than what I used to is ridiculous. I look at my little brothers and stuff. There are definitely weekends where me and him will sit inside and play on our computers. All they do is sit on video games and the computer. I technically do too for a living. Technology isn't the enemy; I think it can help bring people into parks too, if you let them know.
My generation is a reconnaissance to the wilderness, and I think that is spurred by social media. Is the point for me to share this with people on the internet? Look what I did, and isn't this great for people in my generation who come through? Kind of have a checklist, is what I've noticed. "Oh, this spot, this spot, this spot, I'm going to go there." Or is it to inspire other people to get out?
The different way that we're experiencing parks is that we're doing it in a more interactive way. So, we'll tweet it, we'll Instagram it, we use Google Maps to find all sorts of parks to go camping in. Airbnb, and you can go look at trails too. Maps, you know, I use birding apps to identify birds. It's easier than ever.
The question is, where's the line? There's always this debate of people who are like, how much are you actually looking at what you're seeing? Even though they're in nature, they're seeing it still through a screen. I've tried that before. I've not taken my camera out, and I'll see a beautiful sunset or something, and I just regret it. For me personally, it's a motivator.
There is a big drive to have that perfect picture. I can really appreciate what I'm seeing while capturing it, and I like to have those memories. I love that social media can capture those moments, not that that's the driving force for our generation to come out to national parks, but I think that plays a part in it. I see something cool, and I want to take a picture of it or I want to film it or something like that.
Then I'm going to go out further. Meanwhile, people are crashing drones into thermal features in Yellowstone. So, yeah, if you have Wi-Fi in a park, sometimes you'll see the kids sitting around the visitor center. There's a lot of visitors that come here that are so wrapped up in technology, tweeting about it, and they don't really want to walk anywhere.
Maybe they don't realize when they come to Yosemite National Park that it's basically a black hole for all cell phone service. I would be so sad if the whole park had Wi-Fi. Subtleties like natural places become a lot more difficult. People are afraid to be alone in nature without anything to occupy their time, and then that's when they start to realize, "Wow, there's like more to life than technology."
I don't know where my phone is. I don't know where my phone is either. It's really nice to get a chance to just like... at the same time, someone's going to see their tweet who's never been to a park. One person goes and visits it, and then they get to see pictures and they get to see how much you enjoyed it.
People are constantly kind of bombarded with images of these places, and it makes them want to go. The more you see it, the more accessible it feels. Or, on Instagram, like "Let's go here, let's go here." I can't even tell you since I've lived here how many people have reached out to me on social media that don't know me at all.
Like, "Wow, you live such an amazing life! Hey, I've never been to Yosemite before, but I really want to go in the future." Maybe some of the visitation in national parks will be... It's one thing to have it with technology, and that's probably fine. It's another thing to live it, and they say, authentically experience the ecosystems.
Don't care; they'll still be here. You took data from Star Wars terrain. It's simply naked, except it's going to be a little bit cleaner. It's like a Midwestern desert pretty much. The quietest place you could ever come. Places that feel like rainforests, and everything is covered in moss. 4,000 ft walls on either side of us. But then you get up higher, and there's these jagged peaks and the steepness. We're all dwarfed in these mountains. It is so romantic.