Arthur C. Brooks explains why Americans are spending a billion fewer days outdoors than in 2008. The average person checks their phone 205 times daily and screens can't replace real nature. Only direct experience, like observing a clover in your yard, activates your brain the way actual outdoor time does.
The Velux Group in 2019 published a really interesting survey that found that Americans went on 1 billion fewer outings in nature in 2019 compared to 2008. That's a lot. Why is it that we're spending so much less time outside? Over the past 30 years, technology has displaced outdoors in our attention. In other words, going outside is just not something to do when you're completely addicted to wiping out any semblance of free time and boredom in your life by staring at your devices. The average American looks at her or his phone 205 times a day. That's 13 minutes. Adults behind screens, behind computers, spent an average of 10 hours and 39 minutes a day behind the computer last year. That's a lot of time behind the screen. There's not that much time to touch grass when a big majority of your waking hours are actually spent behind a screen. And by the way, what a trade-off. You know, it's like a lot of people are— what is their screensaver? Some beautiful vista from the Rocky Mountains or rolling green hills. Why? Because the good folks at Microsoft or Apple are trying to give you the semblance of touching grass, but It won't pass the Turing test. You can't fool your brain and say, wow, that's such a beautiful picture of the beach. All it is is a complicated simulacrum for the right brain mystical experience that the real thing would bring. The most beautiful picture of the most beautiful mountain doesn't compare to simply going outside in the backyard and looking closely at a clover. And that's because it uses your brain appropriately when you do the real thing.
