People never take time off of work like they have in the past.  Nowadays, people are more interested in how much money they can make in a year so that they can pay their bills rather than being content with the beautiful landscape our homeland has to offer.  The market thrives on expansion and big cities, so the U.S. followed the trend to expand the country, tearing down densely forested areas for the construction of new homes and businesses. During 19th Century the main goal was to expand business in America as fast as possible, in order to become a dominant power in the global economy, yet while deciding this countless number of possible repercussions were overlooked. Luckily, one of our great presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, enacted laws in order to preserve land in areas such as Yellowstone and Yosemite.  Even with these laws implemented, National Parks are becoming last resorts on vacations. One reason why this may be the case, is that with the growing popularity of the Internet the younger generations (Generation Z and millennials) choose to relieve stress and find meaning in front of screen, rather than appreciating the beauty that is nature. As kids and young adults look for an outlet to escape reality and plunge into a whole new world with different life forms and hidden beauty, national parks are becoming obsolete mainly because of the infinite world the Internet has to offer. With the rapid movement towards online interaction and virtual reality, National Parks will no longer stand if millennials and Generation Z do not take time out of their schedules to spread awareness, visit, and maintain the parks for generations to come.

In order to keep the parks available for generations to come, the U.S. needs to work on enticing new ideas to bring the millennials into the parks and spread awareness that parks are here for peace of mind.  With the increase in population, the parks are bound to set record high attendance numbers but, “the number of visitors under the age of 15 has fallen by half,” (Bergeron).  The parks are hitting record high visitors solely because of the baby boomer population; the younger generation’s attendance at these parks is almost negligible. Even after being given the opportunity to travel across country for a summer to immerse oneself in all the awe-inspiring worlds that each individual National Park can offer, high school students are still not intrigued by America’s National Parks. The main problems with these expeditions are that they conflict with summer team sports, jobs, or are too expensive.  Between parents wanting their children to be the best at their sport and kids pushing to new limits there is no break in a season. Sports seasons have become yearlong never ending event with tournament after tournament hoping to get scouted by the top division I schools in the nation. Pouring money into travel teams to go to the best tournaments across the states. Spending all the money on sports, the price of these trips to see the parks ranging upwards of two thousand dollars, only a select few can afford to send their kids on these kinds of trips.  One kid came back from “Teens Westward Bound,” a program that brings high school students across the country in 23 days, showing pictures of the parks, where they hiked, and the places they slept.  It is stunning to see that these different terrains were all located in the states.  Bringing kids to parks to see how Mother Nature has eroded different places in the U.S. is a valuable lesson that not everyone gets the opportunity to experience. As younger generations grow more and more disinterested, the older generations follow suit.  In fact, even U.S. adolescents visiting parks has fallen by 25%, “to an increase in popularity of electronic diversions such as television, the Internet, and video games,” (Barton).  In order for National Parks Service (NPS) to get younger generations more enthusiastic about the idea of being outdoors, the National Park Service needs to implement more feasible trips for kids in lower income areas to experience nature and its virgin land. The parks have way too much to offer to not be utilized by millennials and Generation Z alike.

Henry David Thoreau, a 17th century poet, once said: “What is the use of a house if you haven’t got a tolerable planet to put it on?” As humans today become engrossed in their tablets and smart phones, nature’s beauty begins to fade away without people noticing it. People have begun to lose sight of the small yet enjoyable things in life that can have the greatest impact on ones understanding of life. While the Internet is taking the world by storm, people are losing sight of the beautiful scenery National Parks have to offer. The Internet is better grasped by millennials and generation z than by baby boomers; therefore, younger generations become trapped in virtual reality. After the iPhone was introduced, people realized they could do anything on their phone from checking scores of a favorite sports team to seeing a live video of a lioness in the Sahara take down a helpless gazelle from half a world away, millennials are more attached to their phones than any other generation. The older generations show their love for the parks by visiting and appreciating them. Predictable enough, the average age at national parks is 57.  In Timothy Egan’s article he expresses an anecdote between his son and himself, 

“Damn! No service.’

‘What’s that?’ 

‘I can’t get the score.’

‘That’s a good thing,’ I tell my son, Casey. Yes? Well, no. He’s a millennial, mid-20s. I’m a baby boomer, approaching an unmentionable age. My generation loves the national parks to death. His generation, slightly larger than mine, will have to save them,” (Egan).  Egan’s writes about how millennials and younger generations are so focused on their phones and what others are doing to stop, take a second, and see the landscape around them that is more than 2 billion years old. A millennial on average “spends 3.1 hours a day on a mobile phone.” (Kelly). Kelly makes it obvious supports Egan’s accusation with facts that the youth is self-indulged in their phones rather than exploring the outdoors.  Nature has used earth as a canvas to create elegant landscapes before humans even set foot on earth.  With humans residing on earth, destroyed this landscape to establish homes and cities to reside in. Younger generations cannot get a grip on why the U.S. implemented laws to preserve land.  The purpose of preserving nationals parks is to rewind time and see how nature coexisted before humans set foot on it. Many millenials and Generation Zers look through photos on social media apps like Instagram of people who are “famous” for exploring new lands, taking pictures on top of mountains, in exotic clear lakes, etc.  The problem with this is that people feel as though they aren’t as lucky as those visiting these exotic places, but this is not the case.  The Internet has given millennials the sense that everyone is handed a set of cards and that is all they get. In order to get what one wants, they need to work for it. Not everything is given, “I’m white, grew up middle class and have a middle class family of my own. My grandfather was a Boy Scout leader… And yet, until this year, I’d never been to a single one of America’s national parks,”  (Kealing).  Based on Kealing’s anecdote, he proves the point that most people who visit national parks are older white Americans.  This is nothing to be bash; instead National Parks Service needs to explore ways to encompass all ages and races to embrace the parks. 

National parks are a major chapter of the U.S. history and it is urgent that these national parks remain maintained to entertain generations to come.  “Maintain” comes from the Latin language, which means to cause to continue.  The best way for people to understand the relevance of the preserved land is for people to experience these places first hand.  It is life changing.  Seeing the reflections of snowy Mount McKinley standing tall in Denali, standing inside the Redwood trees in California, jumping into the springs in Hot Springs National Park, or just walking the boardwalk of Congaree National Park.  In nature, there is something for everyone to love.  The best way to maintain these is to visit and see how truly amazing our homeland is.  This is easier said than done.  With National parks spanning across 27 states, there is a National Park within driving distance for 80% of Americans. The problem is most people can’t take enough time off work to spend quality time in these parks.  With park visitation only lasting “a median of 42 minutes” (Evenson), people can’t grasp the full purpose of preserved land in just 42 minutes.  If this was compared to a NFL game, which last on average 3 hours and 12 minutes, people would not leave before the first half if one paid for a ticket into the game that would be considered nonsense, so why would one leave a national park that has been preserved for over 100 years before they even made it half-way into the park? The attention to detail people have in the parks is non-existent. Millennials do not have the same admiration for the parks as baby boomers, “It’s pretty sweet, this place. Like the Manhattan of nature.”

“The what” I asked. 

“Canyons that go on forever, changing in color and rock type, the same way architecture changes in different neighborhoods of New York.” (Egan).   Some millennials think of the parks as wasted land instead of nature’s canvas.  With new inventions in the 21st century, it seems as though national parks are being left in the past. To change this National Parks Service (NPS) can start by hiring the younger generation to work in the parks.  With the parks ranger age averaging around 54, “seventy-five percent of National Park Service employees are at least 40 years old and only 7% are 29 or younger,” (Bergeron).  This in it of its self is a problem because as these rangers get older, their bodies are taking a toll from hiking excursions and the parks upkeep.  With the parks having activities like hiking, kayaking, and camping the younger generation can connect with nature in a whole new way.  Instead of playing games like mincraft, where one can build their own world, they can explore the world that is here to last.  Hiring younger rangers who are ready to work and willing to put forth their all will ultimately bring the parks more life.  By bringing the park more life, millennials are full of new ideas that could be brought to the table to show the rest of their generation that parks are here for them to enjoy and escape reality.  

With the Internet acting as an endless black hole and consuming Millenials daily, national parks have made efforts to reach out and save them.  The National Parks Service has created an Instagram account, Facebook page and a twitter account to show their followers how beautiful sites the parks have to offer.  Along with this, Yellowstone National Park has created a “Yellowstone pledge. Taking this means that you are pledging to respect the park,” (Warburg).  Yellowstone was able to promote this pledge by having celebrities and others on Instagram with millions of people following them to take the pledge.  By doing this, Yellowstone is reaching out to more adolescents who obsess over many celebrities, hoping to have them join the war between the Internet and the preserved homeland.  National Parks Service is taking a step in the right direction but so far there still hasn’t been a change in visitation by millennials to the parks.

With virtual reality becoming the new escape from reality, national parks are being put in the backseat.  It is time to flip the switch and realize that national parks are both a physical and mental escape from reality and are here to stay. In order to keep them around for generations to come, it is up to the youth to take charge in promoting, visiting, and preserving parks.  These parks have many activities to indulge in including rock climbing, kayaking, hiking, and swimming.  With something for everyone to do in these preserved areas it should not be hard to make parks last, as long as kids can give up their iPhones and cell services for a couple hours. Events happen whether it is posted on social media or not so it is time to take a break from the Internet and fully connect with nature. If one takes time off of work and fully indulges their self in nature they will come back changed for the better.  Taking a break from reality improves productivity and mood; it seems like a no brainer to make a trip to the parks. When one takes these days off they need to bring their family and friends along for the ride. Most of the youth are followers, wanting to follow in their superior’s footsteps. In order to escape this black hole the Internet has created, leaders must push the rest of society to visit parks and so they can fall in love with the land like older generations have. Time to start a movement to make national parks not great again but relevant again, parks were never lost, people just forgot about the utter beauty they continue offer day in and day out.
