Americans spending less time with Mother Nature

How often do you spend outdoors? Researchers sought to answer this question for many of Americans by tracking the visits to National parks which included hiking and camping. What they found was that we spend 25% less of our time outside doing these natural recreation activities than Americans did in 1987.

That's about a 1 percent drop per year, for the past 20 years. This study didn't include people doing their own thing outside of these parks though. What's the cause of this decline in interest regarding Mother Nature? Well, you probably don't have to guess if you're reading this right now: TV, computers and other electronic time-wasters help occupy our schedule.

I don't think it is entirely fair to point fingers at these things exclusively, but they do lend themselves to indoor lifestyles. Of course, not everyone has a computer at home -- I actually know people without cable TV! So this doesn't describe all Americans, but it's an interesting report nonetheless.