Videophilia
February 5th, 2008 by Doug Schnitzspahn
It’s official. We are a nation more interested in video games than getting outdoors. At least according to the latest study from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Pergams and Patricia Zaradic, a fellow with the Environmental Leadership Program, Delaware Valley in Bryn Mawr, Pa., had previously reported a steady decline in per capita visits to U.S. national parks since the late 1980s — which correlated very strongly with a rise in playing video games, surfing the Internet and watching movies. The researchers call this recent shift to sedentary, electronic diversions “videophilia.” And they don’t see it as healthy progress.
“The replacement of vigorous outdoor activities by sedentary, indoor videophilia has far-reaching consequences for physical and mental health, especially in children,” Pergams said. “Videophilia has been shown to be a cause of obesity, lack of socialization, attention disorders and poor academic performance.”
No real surprise. But how to reverse the trend?
I interviewed Larry Selzer, president of the Conservation Fund, for the OR Show Dailies and think he’s making a good start by rethinking the way different ethnic and economic demographics relate to the outdoors. 
Conservation Fund President Larry Selzer speaks out on how youth and minorities can save the outdoors—if we would just listen
By Doug Schnitzspahn
When Outdoor Industry Association assembled the most dynamic CEO-level minds in the industry at the Though Leader Conference during Outdoor Retailer Summer Market 07, Larry Selzer was the featured speaker. Since the big problem the meeting focused on was how to get more kids outdoors, the choice made perfect sense. Selzer is the president of the Conservation Fund , a non-profit that has preserved 6-million acres of land since 1985. Even more importantly, he thinks that the way traditional outdoor brands and environmental groups have gone about trying to get youth active is failing. And as far as Selzer is concerned if we don’t get youth and minorities involved with wild places there’s not much hope for the future. Indeed, he believes that engendering kids with a love of being outside is the best way to ensure that wild lands stay wild and save open space from concrete. We sat down to talk with Selzer about his views on youth and the outdoors and to continue the conversation that began at the summer show.
Why is a land-preservation group like the Conservation Fund so focused on children?
When Richard Louv published his book Last Child in the Woods it captured something very deep in the American psyche. It articulated for many Americans something that we felt at a gut level—our growing separation from nature is not only unhealthy from a physical standpoint, it’s also unhealthy from a mental and spiritual standpoint. Envision the future 20 years from now and the decision makers in the public, private, and non-profit sectors who will be asked to make policy and budget decisions about our natural resources. If those future leaders have no connection to the natural resources, then certainly it will be very difficult for them to make wise decisions. So partly to protect the integrity of the lands we have already conserved and partly to address head-on the staggering crisis in children’s health in this country, we decided that focusing on the critical issue of reconnecting children to nature would allow us to create a platform of legitimacy and a platform of advocacy for improving children’s health and ensuring that the next generation would be prepared to inherit the land-legacy that we have protected today.
What barriers are there to that goal?
There is one barrier that goes across all demographics. We have a generation of children who are enthralled with technology, whose parents are increasingly busy, and whose parents themselves did not spend time in the outdoors and are afraid of nature in many respects. And so you have a generation of kids for whom all the messages are pointed in the wrong direction. Because the outdoors is deemed “unsafe,” we stay indoors. Because we are busy we park them in front of technology and because we fear strangers we don’t let our kids roam freely the way we did when we were growing up. Technology is not the problem. It can be part of the solution if we can figure out how to take advantage of technologies to make it easy and exciting and interesting for kids to get back outdoors. Now, when you talk about kids in urban settings, you have the fear but the biggest barrier is that we have eliminated or paved over green space. We need to return to the old wisdom of bringing nature to communities, to the kids, so that they can access nature in their backyards, in local parks, or even in the abandoned lot next door.
The outdoor industry and traditional environmental groups have been talking for years about getting these kids outdoors. Do you think they are missing something?
I think they do a terrific job, but they clearly are missing something. There are 100 million blacks and browns in this country and reconnecting children with nature must be an all-hands-on-deck proposition. We must color-coordinate this effort if, in fact, it is to become a leave-no-child-inside movement. By the year 2050, more than half of the U.S. population will be people of color—Hispanics are the fastest growing segment of the population—and yet we have had very little success and have made very little effort to involve populations of color in this issue of reconnecting children and nature. And when we do talk about communities of color and urban populations, we need to reframe our thinking, not so much in terms of bringing kids out into nature but more in terms of bringing nature to the kids. We need to reach kids where they are, in ways that they can understand. Then we can move them along, ultimately taking them out to national parks and national wildlife refuges.
So what change needs to take place?
We need a new language, new tools, and certainly we need to connect in a way that is culturally appropriate. Reconnecting children with nature can not be legislated. If we are to be successful what we need is a change of culture so that the services we provide, the products we make, the education we deliver, all incorporate this idea of reconnecting to the natural world. That is an important cultural shift. And it will require public, private, and non-profit involvement, not just the environmental movement. Keep in mind that this is primarily a crisis in children’s health, so we need the medical profession. We need childcare. We need the schools. We need communities. All of these partners need to come together in ways that the environmental movement has not been successful with in the past.
Where have they gone wrong?
We make a great mistake when we don’t ask the kids what they want. Historically in this country, we overlook the customer and we design products or programs without asking the customer, in fact, what they would like to see. In the case of reconnecting children and nature, in the case of working with communities of color, the first thing that we ought to do is ask them what they would like. What are their needs and how can we help meet those needs. The traditional approach is trying to figure out how we can engage them in our cause. Instead, we should be seeking ways to meet their needs and through that connection, whether it’s thorough economic development or health and education, we can begin to introduce them to the natural world in a way that makes sense to them, in a way that is interesting and exciting, and in a way that builds a lifelong connection with nature.
What has the Conservation Alliance been doing along these lines?
With the Outdoor Industry and many other partners, we launched the National Forum on Children and Nature last June. It’s a two-year effort that’s chaired by the governors of Montana, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and South Carolina and it includes 15 or 20 CEOs, three big-city mayors, health and education professionals. It’s designed to identify and implement projects that individually and collectively will be the most powerful form of advocacy on how we can change the way we do business in this country and how we can change the culture when it comes to reconnecting children and nature. We have solicited more than 500 proposals and we are now in the process of narrowing down these ideas to the ones that have the most promise.
What outdoor industry companies are most involved?
The industry has a clear interest in growing the market. Reaching out to urban and minority kids is a critically important way of expanding the market and at the same time creating that lifelong love of the outdoors. REI and The North Face have taken a leadership role in the forum and I’m especially pleased with their vision and willingness to step forward and help lead from within the industry.
Are you hopeful for the future?
In my 25 years in the environmental movement, I have never seen an issue that captures the imagination of so many people the way this has—people all across society, from the religious community who realize that this an issue of moral importance, to mainstream business, to the outdoor industry, to the health-care professions. This is an issue that grabs people and wont let go. They understand the crisis we have with respect to children’s health but they also understand that the future health of the environment depends on a future generation that has the passion to protect natural resources. I would welcome a chance to connect with anyone else who has an interest in getting involved, too. It’s going to require all hands on deck and we look to reach out to new partners as we go forward.
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