Nature Literacy

Nature literacy could mean a lot, every individual might have their own definition to nature literacy. From my point of view nature in two words is our natural world, physical world or material world. Nature literate refers to knowing about the natural, physical and material world, understanding it and appreciating it. I believe my generation, as compared to previous generations is much less nature literate. The lack of connection to the natural elements has been reducing gradually, I believe we are more in the technological age and thus no longer care about the earth and what it has to offer. My generation today care less about nature because of the introduction of technology in the world. Majority have no clue of what is called the "third place", where they could hang out with other people and enjoy nature. Rather we do everything technologically, people would rather interact on their computers through skype, oovoo, msn and a few others, than meeting at the park to talk, ride their bicycles and admire nature. Social networks now do not allow individuals in my generation to go out to make friends but rather hit a couple buttons on their "gadgets" and they through with other peers. The youth would play online games with their friends rather than go to the field or court to play physically. A lot of people do not know anything about the environment, talk about pollutions and preservation. Just a few people know what global warming or green house effect are, and thier consequences on nature and the world. People do not come in contact with animals these day to understand the nature of animals. My English professor once asked a question in class "How many of you have had an encounter with an animal today?" and with over 10 or more people in the class only about 2 had. That should tell you a lot, I wonder if he had asked how many of you had been on facebook or twitter today and the whole class would have had a response to that. This all shows that nature illiterate is more common in my generation and people could care less about getting in touch with nature.