Nearly Half of Americans Didn't Go Outside For Recreation In 2018 127
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Colorado Sun: Outdoor businesses need people to get outside, but almost half of Americans don't venture outdoors to play. The steady decline in participation threatens not just the bottom line but the outdoor industry's mission to collectively steer policy on critical issues like climate change, environmental protection and public lands. While the Outdoor Foundation's 2019 Outdoor Participation Report (PDF) showed that while a bit more than half of Americans went outside to play at least once in 2018, nearly half did not go outside for recreation at all. Americans went on 1 billion fewer outdoor outings in 2018 than they did in 2008. The number of adolescents ages 6 to 12 who recreate outdoors has fallen four years in a row, dropping more than 3% since 2007.
The number of outings for kids has fallen 15% since 2012. The number of moderate outdoor recreation participants declined, and only 18% of Americans played outside at least once a week. [...] While the decline in participation is disconcerting for the industry, there were some highlights. Female participation rates are up 3.2% over last year. Hispanics are getting outside twice as often as they were a decade ago, with the strongest growth of any ethnicity. And some sports, like BMX cycling and sailing, are seeing surges in numbers. Most people's outdoor activities are close to home, with more than 63% of Americans recreating within 10 miles of their houses. Less than 19% traveled 25 miles or more to play outside. So the Outdoor Foundation is in a mission to bolster participation in outdoor play near homes, in urban areas where residents might not have as many opportunities to get outside.
The number of outings for kids has fallen 15% since 2012. The number of moderate outdoor recreation participants declined, and only 18% of Americans played outside at least once a week. [...] While the decline in participation is disconcerting for the industry, there were some highlights. Female participation rates are up 3.2% over last year. Hispanics are getting outside twice as often as they were a decade ago, with the strongest growth of any ethnicity. And some sports, like BMX cycling and sailing, are seeing surges in numbers. Most people's outdoor activities are close to home, with more than 63% of Americans recreating within 10 miles of their houses. Less than 19% traveled 25 miles or more to play outside. So the Outdoor Foundation is in a mission to bolster participation in outdoor play near homes, in urban areas where residents might not have as many opportunities to get outside.
Outdoor Sport (Score:3, Informative)
Go outside and do something, or the health costs will be enormous in later years.
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I doubt he even Crossfit, bro.
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"I try to hit the gym at least 3x a week - a mix of cardio, and strength training... it's hard to hit all 3 since work is such a bitch, but damn it if I'm not gonna keep trying."
Since I retired I go 5 times a week, but when I still worked,I also had a hard time to hit 3 times.
The Good Doctor was right, people have vacuuming robots, wet cleaning robots, lawn mowing robots, Amazon brings everything home, soon also with robots, Solaria is right around the corner.
Adam Savage even has a dog robot, but at least h
Throw your TV out. (Score:2)
people have vacuuming robots, wet cleaning robots, lawn mowing robots, Amazon brings everything home, soon also with robots,
Which means that you have a lot more free time than your ancestrors.
Solaria is right around the corner.
Again don't see it as an excuse to not exist your home. See it as an opportunity to have more free time.
Now my advice: Throw away your TV (or have Siri and Cortana help you ebay it).
There's nothing of real interest on it.
Buy yourself a bicycle and helmet. And try to bike to work(*).
Or inline skates. Or a pair of skis. Or just a pair of good shoes. (Or get them second hand if you're that cheapskate).
AND GO OUT in the week-ends, instead of si
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People are increasingly disposing of their TVs.
The problem is they are being replaced with cell phones which have even more time-evaporating powers.
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The gym is not outside. It is inside, with sweaty infected humans and all sorts of fungi and bacteria infesting every nook and crany, it's worse than being at home. Buy a good elliptical trainer, use it daily and you are done.
Outside means, outdoors not indoors at another location. So go for a walk or for further afield and go for a hike. Fishing and hunting are on the wain although sit on top kayaking is fairly safe. Bike riding is also good, the most comfortable form reclining trike tadpole style.
Problem
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I try to hit the gym at least 3x a week - a mix of cardio, and strength training.
Despite the other guy's response, I'd say you sound fine doing this. Not enough people do strength training. We don't need to aim to be Arnold bodybuilders or power lifters or strongest man in the world contenders.... But the sad thing is most people hit the gym and just hold on to the treadmill and move their legs while leaning/hanging on it and get nothing.
I'd still say getting outside when able for even just a walk is good. Really good one is if you can just get up in the morning and go on a nice
Re:Outdoor Sport (Score:4, Interesting)
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an exaggeration but not far from the truth. I think over the years people have moved from mountain bike, fishing, hunting as pass times into more yoga, gym, cardio classes etc. The average person might be less active overall than before but if say there was a 40% dropoff in outdoor activities they might have only been a 10% dropoff in overall activity, just more stuffs indoors.
Money extraction fads (Score:4, Insightful)
classes etc.
In other words, capitalism and marketing has managed to replace activitie that people do on their own for free (or nearly for free, once the initial cost of the equipment has been paid) with activities for which it's possible to sell classes, monthly subscription fees, membership fees, and other similar forms of reoccurring money extraction.
(Yes, I know you can also to yoga at home on your own without needing a class/coach/whatever. And yes I know the post I'm responding to mentioned "hunting" which - as far as I can understand as european city dweller, probably incurs consumables such as bullets which I suspect a significant part of the hunters buy instead of casting themselves).
It seems that it's a consequence of both rent seeking (business seek solution with a stable income: recurring montly subscription fees are the best !), and marketing as expensive products/services have more budget for advertising, and most people will blindly pick up whatever is advertised to them without taking the time to review options and realize that there a much better options for much cheaper.
(As a different example in a different field: see privacy, and the current fad of VPN service. VPNs are advertised all over the place, so people pick them up (and then get burned when NordVPN misconfigures servers and leaks data) and nobody notices that Tor actually works better, requires less trust and is absolutely free. But the thing is Tor has no money, and thus no budget for advertising. Meanwhile, VPN companies not only surf in wake of various privacy accident, but also burn most of their ludicrous VC money in marketing campaign and massive "influencers" partnerships. So that's the tech that people notice and use)
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Arr, sort of. A lot of people like group classes as much for the social interaction as for the exercise it seems. Also group classes arguably help keep you accountable for your exercise. If you skip your walk in the woods no one notices, you miss a week at the gym and your bodies will ask you where were you. It's all psychological but whatever it takes to get you to eat your Wheaties.
Then there's the preference for type of activities. Depends on what you are trying to do but its the rare walk through the wo
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Get a beagle or other hound, take them for a walk at the same time every day for a week. That dog will **never** let you skip that walk for the rest of its life.
Group vs class (Score:2)
A lot of people like group classes
Notice that you used 2 words together. "Group" and "classes"...
as much for the social interaction as for the exercise it seems. Also group classes arguably help keep you accountable for your exercise. If you skip your walk in the woods no one notices, you miss a week at the gym and your bodies will ask you where were you. It's all psychological but whatever it takes to get you to eat your Wheaties.
...and the entire list of benefits depend on being part of a group. Not paying multiple hundreds of bucks per months.
Simply going to hike with a group of friends would still provide you the group, but won't cost much beyond a pair of good shoes.
Biking with friends is good to (some workplace even organize "Bike to work" teams, competing for who is going to have the most consecutive days, etc.)
Being part of some small amateur sports team also has
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Speaking of living in Canada, see https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada... [www.cbc.ca] Kids playing in their fenced-in back yard and CFS (Child and Family Services) swoop in to investigate. The summary says "The number of adolescents ages 6 to 12 who recreate outdoors has fallen four years in a row, dropping more than 3% since 2007".
Duhhh, I wonder why their parents won't let them. Showing my age here, but when I was a kid growing up in the 1960'a, it was common for kids to go out to play all day long during school vacations
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Yeah I hear parents debating if 8yrs old or whatever is too young for a kids first cellphone. wtf. Who the hell do you need to call at that age, including parents. If you are so far away from parents (yours or your friends) you got problems. People think they can find a magical tether with a gps so they always know where their kid is, and it ends up crippling them from playing.
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"And yes I know the post I'm responding to mentioned "hunting" which - as far as I can understand as european city dweller, probably incurs consumables such as bullets which I suspect a significant part of the hunters buy instead of casting themselves)."
I hope so, but quite a few people reload ammo even if they aren't casting the lead bullets. Sure but every activity carries some kind of consumable. Bait, Line, Hooks, Weights, food, and beer for camping. If you go to state/federal parks instead of camping f
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In other words, capitalism and marketing has managed to replace activitie that people do on their own for free (or nearly for free, once the initial cost of the equipment has been paid) with activities for which it's possible to sell classes, monthly subscription fees, membership fees, and other similar forms of reoccurring money extraction.
That's one way to look at it. And in some cases, it might be the right way.
In my case, I pay a guy a fair amount of money to kick my ass in two private training sessions a week, a half hour each. In that 1 hour of exercise I get more fitness than I would get doing 3+ hours on my own. I get compound exercises I wouldn't think of doing, I get pushed harder than I'd be willing to push myself, and I don't get hurt doing any of that, because someone who knows what the fuck they're doing is in charge, not someone
Efficiency (Score:2)
I don't think the trend you're describing is all that negative. While I love getting outdoors when I can I find things like the gym are far more efficient in terms of time versus workout. There's a gym every few miles in my town, a nice jog down to the closest to get some cardio going and then into weights. Literally every moment invested into the gym, including travel time, is pure workout. Even when I drive to the gym, it's so close the amount of time spent not working out is incredibly minimal. Basically
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Tor is slow, and asks people not to use things like torrents on the network.
Also, browsing the internet over Tor is quite a bit more painful with capachas everywhere.
but yes, I get and feel your rant.
P.S. reloading, is BIG money.
Tor in 2020 (Score:2)
Tor is slow,
It's 2020 already. The capability of the Tor network have increased a lot. And its self regulating capability too. It's mostly usable for most regular need.
and asks people not to use things like torrents on the network.
The main reason why the Tor project strongly discourages Torrent is that few clients are specially designed to contain 100% of their traffic on tor and not leak their IP in any way.
There's no point in using a Tor socks proxy, if the torrent client is going anyway to send anonymously messages telling everyone "Please connect to mo at ${real IP}".
Also, browsing the internet over Tor is quite a bit more painful with capachas everywhere.
It's 2020
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You keep saying it's 2020 like that matters. And unless there where big changes this last month or two, then they are still issues. Sure, it's way better than what it was in say 2016. but it's still a lot slower than a VPN service. And I know people who complain of speed unless they get at least 10Mbs and I'm happy if I get 1.5Mbs
I have made use of tor quite a bit last year and the captchas where painful. Also couldn't even use google search. And I have run into many places that plain have the tor exit n
Yes, it has improved. (Score:2)
You keep saying it's 2020 like that matters. And unless there where big changes this last month or two, then they are still issues. Sure, it's way better than what it was in say 2016. {...} I have made use of tor quite a bit last year and the captchas where painful. Also couldn't even use google search.
Yes there have been a lot of improvement (see below for change in the last month). I have no idea how old the version you're recently use was. But using an up-to-date version on a rolling linux disto, I can notice the improvements.
Some, like the decreased amount of captcha are very recent.
but it's still a lot slower than a VPN service.
I litteraly used that recently to get around some geolock on Youtube. And it worked good enough (maybe waiting a couple of seconds to start preloading).
And I know people who complain of speed unless they get at least 10Mbs and I'm happy if I get 1.5Mbs
- The protocol has been becoming better at self-balancing.
- Youtube ha
Banking. (Score:2)
If you want a secure VPN for traveling,
As you mention in your previous sentence the purpose of VPN is to hide who your are communicating with. Not for securing.
The HTTPS connection and a good quality (i.e.: not issued by some corrupt shitty CA) SSL certificate are what guarantees security.
VPN doesn't change much (and would in any case only add a partial encryption layer restricted to only the segment of the traffic between your laptop and the VPN's servers)
such as accessing a bank from hotel WiFi,
Banks are typically the kind of institution which are going to use correctly set up their
Re:Outdoor Sport (Score:5, Insightful)
Outside is full of:
1) Dirt
2) Animals, particularly of the creepy crawly variety
3) Unpleasant climates
4) Last, but most significant - people I don't want to interact with
I can find little to recommend it, except that in some places I can't afford to live, it looks pretty when viewed from the comfort of my living room.
Re:Outdoor Sport (Score:5, Informative)
Inside is full of
1) Dirt (air quality, dust, CO2 much?)
2) Animals, of the bipedal variety
3) Unpleasant climates (insert management fad of the month and thermostat wars)
4) Last, but most significant - people I don't want to interact with
I can find little to recommend it, except that in some places that have been plastered over with buildings, asphalt, and concrete walkways, it serves for getting out of the wind tunnels.
Re: Outdoor Sport (Score:3)
The last point might be the most important to the trajectory we're seeing... Even "suburban" neighborhoods are getting more stuffed up with people, houses built up alongside parks, etc... You have to go farther and farther out to get away from people.
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Here in Texas where everything is (allegedly) bigger, there are vast swaths of unused brush-land that is ugly, underutilized and plentiful. So, of course, we build our suburbs so tightly packed that you can pass the salt from one kitchen window to your next-door neighbor through his kitchen window without having to leave the house.
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in this situation it's the developers trying to squeeze as much out of a parcel of land as they can. It's like that in almost every subdivision in the country. But it is is odd, since they invariably have some grandiose, outdoorsy sounding name. But in reality they are nothing of the sort.
"The Pines" -> the only trees are from the landscapers, and the HOA won't allow you to plant any on your property (though really it belongs to the HOA)
"Terrace View" -> the only view here is into your neighbors ba
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Outside is full of:
1) Dirt
I don't like sand. It's coarse and rough and irritating and it gets everywhere. Not like here. Here everything is soft and smooth.
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I have to say, I grew up in a small rural town of 12k that was the county seat in central IL. Camping usually meant dropping a boat in the river and finding a spot along the bank which looked like a good site. I got very used to being able to walk for half a mile on city streets in the evening without encountering another person let alone when I went camping or fishing. Hell half the time I could walk half a mile during the day without bumping into someone if it wasn't on the main streets but at night I wou
Outdoor vs Indoor Sport (Score:2)
The gym is not "outside". The truth is most city dwelling Americans have been brainwashed to look down on any sort of outdoors activities.
I feel you are confusing brainwashing with good old fashioned cost benefit analysis. Recreational activities which can be done in a gym have numerous benefits over outdoor sport. The climate is consistent, less pollen allergens, showers are more readily available, no need for sunscreen, less danger from cars, etc. And a gym generally requires less acreage to service the same number of people than a park, so there will often be more gyms in heavily populated areas than parks.
As I have allergy induced asthma,
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Recreational activities which can be done in a gym have numerous benefits over outdoor sport. The climate is consistent, less pollen allergens, showers are more readily available, no need for sunscreen, less danger from cars, etc.
I had a cousin who died on a gym treadmill. Just saying.
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Indoor air quality is garbage.
I never claimed air quality was better in doors. I was careful to only state pollen allergens are higher outdoors, which is an accurate statement. Dust and dander related allergens are far higher indoors, but dust mite allergies are less common and pet dander is not high in a gym setting. Pollen based allergens are a much greater concern to a much greater number of people.
You got a bunch of people using up O2 and converting it to CO2 as fast as possible in a confined space. Even with ventilation, it'll never match the outdoors.
While it is common for ventilated gyms to have CO2 concentrations above 1000 ppm (OSHA standard for good are quality), it generally hover
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I wouldn't say look down by city folks, But city folks do seem to be more afraid of nature then the country folks.
But country folks have the same irrational fear in the Cities.
City Folks: Hears some animals calls, oh NO it is those predictors out to attack me!
Country Folks: Hears people talking loudly at each other, oh NO it is gangsters out to attack me!
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Why?
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Not just physical health, but mental health also.
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I sold my bike when my coworkers kept getting injured or killed.
I've been hiking instead, far fewer cars, no fractured body parts for 25 years. And the required equipment is substantial lower cost and less maintenance.
Re:Outdoor Sport (Score:5, Funny)
I sold my bike when my coworkers kept getting injured or killed.
Well that was their own fault for getting in your way.
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no, but an abusive husband might have hit him. i've seen the commercials and the twitter comments.
Outside? (Score:3)
What's this "outside" thing they are speaking of?
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Probably the thing you see on your way to work? I see it too on the way to work. I, one day, may be able to go do something there when I retire around age 76.
BS Story (Score:3, Informative)
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Right, and there is another thing here that is potentially being ignored. The "A Walk in the Woods" effect. While the AT is probably still more popular than ever; that book came out and it romanticized the heck out of hiking.
Now for a lot of people like myself who love hiking it rings true; but its not everyone's cup of tea. I don't blame the book for portraying it as something other than what it is, it actually does not for the most part but brought a lot of visibility to the "sport" and when you read the
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I got stuff going on 25-30 years, and take good care, but I am finding odd things like the elastic parts of things stop being elastic. Foam padding disintegrate a, creases in soft material like fabric become stiff and brittle or crack.
I'm talking kelty, REI, north face things purchased 20+ years ago, long before that stuff and brands became trendy. Also had to somewhat recently had to buy a new stove as they have new canisters that I no longer find.
And now, the last 5-10 years, it's gotten so crowed and t
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"assuming they followed typical sampling methodology"
Comical. It is funny how people just blindly believe stuff that corporations put out.
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Re: BS Story (Score:2)
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But.. the GODS!! (Score:4, Insightful)
NOOOO, no going out on the shell of the world egg!! The Burning One in the sky hates usss and stares at us with it's baleful glare!
Safe, SAFE are we in the cool darkness of the Eternal Blissful Night!
Think my lovelies.. do you shrug off your protective skins and seek comfort in the sky fires?? NOOO!! TRUE GLORY is to be found wrapped in the snuggle of the blankets of happiness! The Burning One shines his hate upon your shame for all to see!! Only the Comforting Night cloaks you so you may always hold your head high among your neighbors, your petty sins unknown.
REJECT! REJECT, I say, the lies from the Burning One's tricksters, before you are cursed with the malignant melanoma! Seek the dark brothers and sisters, and you shall be accepted!
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The sun is a deadly lazer! [youtube.com]
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Dude, you forgot to ask for his newsletter...
Fine by me (Score:2)
Fine by me; I know how to use compass and topo map. I dont need a lot of investment in fancy trails and facilities. Just leave the wilderness areas open to the public for back-country camping/hiking and fly a drone over once in while to make sure people are not doing destructive/illicit crap.
Its better without a crowd anyway
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I could not agree more. The Park Service has done (at least did many decades ago) build a wonderful system of access that allows a lot people to see the most awe inspiring part of our interior without getting out of the car. It does minimize impact and it is a good source of revenue to protect and maintain the rest of the parks.
Re: Fine by me (Score:2)
I would not say that 95% of the majesty is within 400 yards. Thinking of some of the National Parks I visited: ... maybe that one. We did not hike that far from the road.
Zion, the best parts are a good hike away from the roads.
Grand Canyon, the bottom of it is worth much more than 5%.
Bryce,
Lassen: Cinder Cone and Painted Dunes are more than 2000 yards from the road. Bumpass Hell is over 1000 yards from the nearest bend of the road.
Muir Woods: Cathedral grove is half a mile from the entrance (trail access on
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Its better without a crowd anyway
The crowds are a strong factor in keeping those wilderness areas open to the public instead of turning into a subdivision, shopping mall, or more farm land. If not enough people are using them, and therefore applying pressure to local governments to resist development, they can easily go away.
Outside? (Score:2)
Soon we will be going outside on Mars! (Score:1)
To what outdoor recreational infrastructure? (Score:5, Insightful)
I live across the street from a State Forest. So I can go on a 6 mile hike when ever I feel like it. However there is little parking available, and no trashcans at the exits. Leaving a lot of litter in the forest. But also there are a lot of hunters in this forest who I don't have an issue with... But I need to be sure I am wearing bright colors and stay on the trail.
40 years of "Stranger Danger" has made sure that generations of parents are scolded (sometimes arrested) for letting their kids to go out an play unsupervised around the neighborhood. As the media made it seem behind every street corner there is a guy who is going to abduct children.
Having government failed to put money into walking paths, and bike trails for some reason became some LiBeRaL Greeny conspiracy vs giving its citizens alternate way to enjoy their area.
Parks need to be updated, cleaned, with sufficient services, Play Area, and a few area for sports.
So after a generation of not letting our kids out to have fun + letting the existing infrastructure rot. That means we are afraid to go out and if we do there isn't much we can do. Unless you plan a massive trip around it.
Re:To what outdoor recreational infrastructure? (Score:5, Interesting)
40 years of "Stranger Danger" has made sure that generations of parents are scolded (sometimes arrested) for letting their kids to go out an play unsupervised around the neighborhood. As the media made it seem behind every street corner there is a guy who is going to abduct children.
This right here. My wife and I were recently watching a documentary where two people recreated and revisited some of the things they did as kids. They traveled miles by bike just the two of them. We started reminiscing too, and suddenly felt heartbreak for kids knowing they'll never get to experience that freedom, their parents constantly shuttling them around and helicoptering over them. And that sad part I imagine is that there are probably parents that don't want to, but can't because they'll be demonized for not spending every waking moment hovering about their child.
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I let him run around with the other kids nearby.. my rule is just for him to tell me where he's going
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Oh No, we have to change some language norms. END OF CIVILIZATION!
Good thing you weren't around when some guy named William said, Just call me Bill.
This seems the minimum effort needed to be kind to people.
I am a heterosexual male, I don't really understand "non binary" or Trans genders, I get the concepts but I don't get the emotional need. However I don't have to understand someone to be kind to them. They asked to be addressed in a particular way then I will address them as such (within reason).
I have
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there are probably parents that don't want to, but can't because they'll be demonized for not spending every waking moment hovering about their child
I'm one of these. I'm in a town where police will be called if my daughter was unsupervised for even a moment.
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Well for the parents (and some grandparents) when they were kids, they would watch TV or play Nintendo or Atari.
However access to the internet probably reduces the kids need to go visit their friends, because they can chat and play games online with each other. Were back in them old days with a 1 line Telephone. Most of that was difficult.
Heck I use to use BBS's for my online activity. And in order for me to download a 1meg game, I would need to let my family know so they don't pick up the phone and kill m
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Kids today have YouTube. ... The only freedom they want is turning off the parental internet controls.
When I was a kid, I had plenty of access to TV and video games (both home game console based and arcade based). Most of the time, I chose outdoor activities and social or semi-social activities.
One of the differences I've seen, over the last 15 or so years, is that many parents have tended to use TV and (home console) video games to keep their kids inside at home so they didn't have to worry about where their kids were and what they were doing. And when their kids wanted to go outside, they would say someth
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> However there is little parking available, and no trashcans at the exits. Leaving a lot of litter in the forest.
Put a trash can there and chain it to a tree? Change the bag every week? It's like $14 for 52 decent trash bags.
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I thought about that.
However my start to the trail isn't the main one. And when I walk the trail I rarely go to the main entrance. There is a sign at the main entrance saying No Dumping. I feel if I put a trash can there, it may encourage people to dump their trash from their cars there.
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While walking the dogs in the morning I used to pick up litter and stick it in dumpsters on trash pickup day every week, but one woman got so incensed that I put a water bottle (which had been laying in the street in front of her house for a week) in her recycle bin that she threatened to call the police. So much for that.
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We garden a lot (my goal is to never have to mow again, and I'm well on the way to replacing all the grass with other stuff). I say "Hello" to everyone who passes, and some of the reactions from younger people are appalling. Kid, I'm not going to jump across the iris bed to grab you. Young parents with babies in strollers sometimes react as though I'm going to snatch the brat and cook it. My wife has stopped saluting anyone under about 40 years old, but I persist. I do like the reactions when I give ra
People! (Score:3)
I live in Colorado and yes, recreate outside fairly regularly.
In the winter I avoid the ski slopes mainly because of the costs. $160 to $210 a day to go skiing along with renting skis, motel (if you can find one), food, and transportation is basically a once a winter vacation. And there’s a ton of people out skiing. The parking lots get full fast and even the in town, bus to the slopes parking lot fills quickly so people park in the town itself preventing shoppers from shopping.
We generally go snowshoeing at Rocky Mountain NP. And if you don’t get to the more popular destination, Bear Lake, before 6am, you likely won’t find a parking spot as the place fills up fast. We went up a few weeks back and had to park at a lower lake and walk around it. Generally I’m trying to get to the lake around 5am and the lot is a quarter to half full.
Summer time hikes is even more populated, with people parking on the road and hiking half a mile or more to get to a trailhead. As we have a dog, we like dog friendly trails but some people think there’s a magic poop fairy that collects dog bags left on the trail.
My wife and I take summer motorcycle trips. East coast to visit family, experience outside, and see the sights. Same with alternate west coast trips. PCH is lovely and we visit the various parks long the way.
It seems like the article is also worried folks aren’t buying or renting gear which supports local business. Personally we have all the gear we need for what we do and would only make purchases if something breaks or gets lost. Or maybe not paying to go to parks. I did get my National Park Senior pass so no more paying to get into a NP :)
[John]
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I was talking to some of my Colorado colleagues recently at an event here in New York City and they were complaining about how cold it was. I was surprised because I think Colorado is generally colder - we had been having temperatures ranging from low 20s to high 30s (F) at that point - but they were not used to being outside longer than it took to get to and from their cars.
In a place like this where few of us own cars, we are outside a lot more. I, like many people, continue to walk and bike even whe
State Parks / Camping (Score:2)
A yearly camping trip to a state park is also something to consider. Most camping spots are cheap. You learn a lot about
Go outside...for business? (Score:4, Interesting)
Outdoor businesses need people to get outside...
What the actual fuck? That's the way they start the story? No mention of documented benefits of spending time in nature?
No place is perfect, but being out among the trees and grass--something green--is good for emotional health. Yes, there are lots of people and crap to put up with in parks and so on. That's one reason I go backpacking. In certain places the trails are somewhat overrun, too, but part of the fun--if you have some degree of curiosity, I suppose--is finding your own special places to go that are not overrun with people.
I have several places like that and I don't tell anyone about them because I want them to stay as empty as possible. Knowing you are the only human for a ten-mile radius is something worth experiencing. It makes people much easier to put up with--and makes me easier to put up with, I hope--when I return to "civilization".
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I suspect such benefits may be correlative rather than causal, at least for some of these benefits. Probably the biggest improvement I notice when being outside for a while is improved mood, especially if I've been inside for a few days. However, I also feel this with a sun lamp, or by taking vitamin D supplements, with supplements having the most noticeable and obvious impact (usually within 1-2 hours I feel fantastic).
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Buy-n-Large (Score:4, Informative)
The population is ageing (Score:2)
My backyard isn't outside? (Score:2)
More Alternatives (Score:2)
It is the industry we worry about? (Score:2)
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Rather than focusing on the health impact (both physical and mental), we are concerned about the business aspects?
Exactly, you must take care of your body in order to be a good Consumer.
If you get sick your Netflix subscription might lapse and we can't have that. Or if you're dying from cancer and in a hospice with a few weeks to go, you might stop ordering stuff from Amazon.
Think of the economy, Citizen, and do your part. Only terrorists refuse to support our vibrant and growing economy, which must remain healthy if we're to win our war with EastAsia.
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Sounds like the argument the FA/HAES crowd makes. "We don't owe you health!!". Sure, but apparently we owe you millions of dollars of health care, especially when single payer comes (and it will, within 10 years).
Perversely in many cases the morbidly obese end up costing less because they die so early, like smokers.
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Yep, the FA/HAES nonsense is so supremely stupid that it's hard for me to comment rationally on it.
1) Being obese is bad for your health, and no amount of touchy-feely bullshit will ever change that. The outright denial of medical science by the HAES people is infuriating. Extra pounds means more health problems and tens of thousands of studies confirm it. No study has EVER shown that being overweight is good for you or that it's even neutral in terms of your health.
2) 99.99999999% of people in the world do
lol, go outside (Score:2)
I went outside once, it was cold and wet. Ewwwwwwwww. No thanks.
I remember it clearly (Score:2)
Nearly Half of Americans Didn't Go Outside For Recreation In 2018
What are you talking about? I clearly recall running across the sand dunes of Tatooine for hours on end.
You can't monetize 'outdoor' very easily (Score:2)
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They say there's a big yellow ball in the sky (Score:2)
I've heard about this "outside" thing. The pizza guy often mentions it to Mom and I. We invite him down here for gaming so we don't have to go up.
The people could live on Mars (Score:2)
Video Games (Score:2)
Well I play Red Dead Redemption Online, and I am outside the whole time in there.
I can camp, I can fish, I can hunt. I go out and ride on my horse outside, see the beautiful mountains, the sun rises, the sunsets, the winter snow, desert, swamps, nature with all its animals.
And I can could outside it with friends in there also.
Yes its a real virtual worlds that is outside and kids are probably getting more of an outdoor experience there than in the real world...
This is good, isn't it? (Score:3)
We let "outside" crumble. (Score:2)
As a society, we've been making decisions as if if we explicitly wanted to make the outdoors unsafe and unwelcoming and predatory. We let cops kill people for no reason, we let polluters go right on polluting, we let civilians buy and carry all the guns they want, we sell off state and national parks to oil companies.
I can't say I'm shocked that people don't go outside as much under such conditions.
Quality of life (Score:2)
Nearly half? (Score:2)