Social Media’s Impact on Outdoor Recreation
Growing up in Kansas in the 90s, magazines like Outdoor Life and Sports Afield helped stir my imagination for outdoor travel. I devoured the stories and photos inside, until every page was dog eared. These magazines offered inspiration for me to create my own adventures in the outdoors.
Today, in the year 2021, inspiration for outdoor adventures can be found in a new form: social media.
According to a recent study, “Leisure travelers ages 18–34 in the US have the Facebook family of apps as the top online channel for discovering travel destinations.” And as of 2020, the most followed brand on Instagram is “National Geographic,” with 153 million followers, according to another study. Data collected by blog.fanpagekarma.com in 2019, found that “Travel” was the no.4 most popular category on Instagram, and “Nature” was the no.6 most popular.
With more people than ever before being encouraged to spend time in the outdoors, the question must be asked: is the popularity of outdoor travel and recreation on social media positive?
One thing social media has been able to do more efficiently than perhaps any other form of media, is recruit the public for environmental causes related to outdoor recreation. Without the public being made aware of beautiful outdoor destinations they have access to themselves, they might not have any motivation to protect them in the first place. This is where social media can have a positive impact.
Last year, when former President Trump pushed for the sale of oil extraction leases inside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an Instagram account called Protect the Arctic enlisted the help of popular social media influencers to collect and deliver over 5,000,000 letters to the Fish and Wildlife Service in opposition of the order during a public comment period; the letters cited concerns the oil exploitation would cause to both wildlife and recreational use.
It was earlier discussions of drilling in the ANWR on Facebook in the mid 2000’s that inspired me to take my own solo backpacking trip there in 2014 to see the place for myself. I came home with memories I will never forget and beautiful photos to share with friends and family.
So important is the role of social media in regards to public perception of outdoor recreation, that researchers in Finland and South Africa conducted a study in 2019 to asses public perception of a handful of National Parks in South Africa. By using social media data, the researchers were able to see a beneficial link between social media use and positive public perception of the parks; as a bonus, the data also offered ways for park managers to make the outdoor experience even better for visitors.
Another unexpected benefit of social media in the world of outdoors, is the increased inclusiveness of urban demographics traditionally underrepresented in outdoor recreational culture.
A 2017 study by researchers at California Polytechnic State University- supported by the US Forest Service- found a positive relationship between social media and urban youth’s perception of the outdoors. The findings of the study suggested “novel opportunities to connect underserved urban youth with natural areas.”
It was the heavy endorsement of popular outdoor brands on social media that helped me discover Soul River Inc., a nonprofit created by US Navy veteran Chad Brown that connects Veterans as guides for groups of inner city youth on outdoor adventures. The organization, based out of Oregon and founded in 2010, has taken groups on expeditions from southern Utah to Alaska. According to the organization’s website, social media is a key tool in sharing their message of the importance of the outdoors with this specific demographic of youth- a group traditionally underrepresented in outdoor recreational activities.
Inevitably, there are still some concerns about the negative impacts social media can have on the outdoors.
In 2019, a 4x4 off-roader vandalized a piece of limestone in Moab, Utah- an outdoor destination made hugely popular by social media platforms- and then was bold enough to post a photo off his vandalism on Instagram. In a similar incident in 2018, a tourist vandalized a rock monument near Angel’s Landing trail in Zion National Park by writing his social media account handle, “@Suspense Fitness,” on it.
And these are far from isolated incidents. Tourism and vandalism are seemingly increasing in relation to one another in popular recreational destinations.
Some people even use social media to grow their name through notoriety by intentionally abusing the outdoors, like Colorado entrepreneur David Lesh, who currently faces federal charges for accusations of entering off limit areas in National Forestland, and then defecating in a popular lake near Aspen, Colorado; events he bragged about in photos on social media.
No doubt there is valid concern about the growing problem of vandalism and overexploitation of public lands due to social media. But with the benefits social media has brought by expanding public access to the outdoors and public involvement in environmental issues, I’m not ready to write off the medium just yet.
Social media is relatively new still (even I, at the age of 32, remember when home internet was all but nonexistent), and we are still trying to establish certain ground rules for this new form of communication. Now that we understand the power social media has for inspiring people to get outside, maybe the next focus should be to establish a universal set of ethos for responsible use of social media in promoting the outdoors.
Some local social media influencers here in Colorado have begun intentionally masking the location of their photos to avoid other users overcrowding their favorite spots. In the “location” section of the post, they write instead: “Tag responsibly. Keep Colorado wild.”
Perhaps we could all take this message to heart when using social media: Share the beauty of the outdoors, but do so responsibly.