I grew up with stories from my parents about how they would spend their teenage years out until the streetlights came on, and that at ten o’clock a celebrity would come on television to ask adults, “Do you know where your children are?” I spent my own teen years riding my bike everywhere: the library, the pool, playing chicken with four lanes of traffic to go to the ice cream shop. I could easily walk to the park and meet up with friends and not worry about anything but a sunburn. But as technology advances, the cultural prevalence of true crime heightens, and urban sprawl increases, teens are spending less time outside interacting with nature. What is stopping teens from exploring the outdoors? Daily life has become inundated with technology and social media and it can be harder to find time (or the will power) to go outside. Part of growing up is an increased desire to spend time with friends versus family as you develop a stronger sense of identity. Social media is an easy means for teens to reach out to their peers and seek validation and camaraderie. Teens also desire a higher level of independence as part of their brain development. A need for independence and increased time spent with friends does lead to a general drop off of time spent in nature. There are many factors that go into whether or not your teen wants to spend time outdoors. Access to the outdoors or nature plays a big part. Unless teens are able to have a means of transportation, it can be hard to access genuine outdoor spaces without relying on others (and your teen wants to be independent so asking for a ride from a parent is so unappealing). This issue increases for teens in urban areas where green spaces are a limited commodity, or neglected by the community, and they may have to travel to other neighborhoods to access quality spaces.

The Profound Power of Aesthetic and Sensory Delight in Natural Spaces to Change Our Relationship to the Environment