Look! It's a tree!

OK, this may fall in the not quite so stupid study category, but it's interesting.

Apparently kids would prefer to hang out online or play video games than go outside, hike or camp.

I admit, I resemble that remark, but I do like the occasional hiking or camping trip.

According to a Scripps Howard News Service story:

"National polls indicate that children and teenagers play outdoors less than young people did in the past. Between 1997 and 2003, the proportion of children ages 9 to 12 who spent time hiking, walking, fishing, playing on the beach or gardening declined 50 percent, according to a University of Maryland study.

The lack of outdoor activity is more pronounced in minority and lower-income communities. Latino parents, for example, were twice as likely as white parents to say their child never participated in an outdoor nature activity and three times more likely to say their child did not go to a park, playground or beach this past summer, according to the Public Policy Institute poll.

...

Children between the ages of 8 and 18 spend an average of nearly seven hours a day with electronic media, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation. The trend starts early. A 2002 study found that 8-year-olds could identify 25 percent more Pokemon characters than wildlife species."

All you really need is to pull out one of those hunting games and it's almost like being there in real life. Almost, but not quite, exactly unlike it, in fact.

Cheers,
-SueVo