Nowadays, the youth spend less time engaging in outdoor activities in the natural environment, such as hiking and mountain climbing. This results from the excessive usage of social media and unaffordable training and gear. To address this issue, parents should restrict their children’s time on the Internet and schools should organize extracurricular activities to make outdoor activities more appealing.
Firstly, the use of social media among youths has increased sharply in recent decades. In this technological era, every family member of a household, including children, owns at least a smartphone. Due to this early access, most children are more interested in surfing the Internet to watch funny videos than going outside to play with their parents and friends. Consequently, this trend results in the increasing sedentary lifestyle and obesity rate among individuals, leading to an unhealthy society. Moreover, outdoor activities such as hiking and mountain climbing often require expensive training and gears. Those activities are often considered dangerous and risky; therefore, individuals must take structured learning courses and buy supporting tools, which consumes a considerable amount of effort and expense, making them less appealing towards young people.
Fortunately, there are actions that can alleviate this issue. The first approach is to restrict children’s usage of smart devices. Parents should invite their children in their leisure time to exercise together more regularly, therefore making them more fascinated in outdoor activities. As a result, not only family bonds are strengthened, but also households get a better physical and mental health. Another method is to promote low-cost campaigns to show the appeals of outdoor activities at schools. If children are taught properly about the foundation of hiking, and mountain climbing, they will be more attracted into those activities. For example, by inviting an expert hikers to give talks at schools about their experiences and their journeys, students will have a clearer view of this sport and how interesting it is, therefore encouraging them to take part in.
In conclusion, the overuse of social platforms and intensive trainings of hiking, and mountain climbing are the main reasons that make the youth spend less time on outdoor activities on their holidays. To mitigate this problem, parents should restrict their children’s time span on the Internet, and schools should offer affordable courses to teach students of hiking, and mountain climbing.