The Outdoors Still Matters
Nearly two-thirds of young New Zealanders wish social media had never been invented.
Half report anxiety or depression.
More than half believe the world is on a downward slide.
A quarter of young men say they have no close friends.
The recent Outward Bound survey is confronting - not because young people are fragile, but because they are saturated.
Hyper-awareness has replaced perspective.
War. Climate. Economic instability. AI. Politics. Social division.
Every crisis arrives in the palm of your hand, hourly.
It is not the existence of problems that is new.
It is the intensity and repetition of exposure.
Young people are not short of information.
They are short of agency.
And agency is exactly what outdoor recreation restores.
The Difference Between Awareness and Action
The survey speaks of “doomerism” - a fatalistic belief that the system is rigged and nothing can change.
Outdoor environments operate by different rules.
A river does not care about social media narratives.
A ridge line does not respond to trending outrage.
A fish does not negotiate with pessimism.
In the outdoors, effort produces outcome.
Walk further - you see further.
Learn skills - you become safer.
Practice - you improve.
That cause-and-effect relationship is deeply stabilising.
It rebuilds competence.
Competence builds confidence.
Confidence restores agency.
This is not sentimental. It is structural.
Physical Reality as Psychological Reset
Social media amplifies abstraction.
The outdoors reintroduces physical reality.
Cold water is cold.
Wind is wind.
Distance is measurable.
You cannot doom-scroll your way up a hill.
Outdoor activity demands presence. It narrows attention to what is immediately controllable. That reduction in cognitive overload is not accidental - it is neurological.
Research consistently shows time in nature reduces stress markers and improves mood regulation. But beyond the science lies something simpler:
Being outdoors reduces noise.
Not all problems vanish. But they shrink to human scale.
Community Without Performance
The survey also highlights isolation - especially among young men.
Outdoor recreation creates shared experience without algorithmic comparison.
You do not need curated identity on a tramping track.
You need steady footing.
Fishing clubs, climbing groups, surf communities, hunting parties - these are not ideological spaces. They are functional communities.
They are built around doing.
That matters.
This Is Not Anti-Technology
Technology is not the villain. Nor is awareness of global challenges inherently unhealthy.
But constant exposure without proportional action creates paralysis.
The outdoors restores proportion.
It reminds young people - and older ones - that while the world is complex, immediate competence is attainable.
You cannot fix geopolitics this afternoon.
You can paddle a kayak.
You can walk a track.
You can learn to tie a knot correctly.
That shift is not trivial.
It is foundational.
The Principle
Outdoor recreation is not an escape from reality.
It is a recalibration of it.
If young New Zealanders feel powerless, the response is not simply regulation of platforms or better messaging.
It is rebuilding direct connection - to land, to water, to skill, to community.
Agency does not return through headlines.
It returns through action.
And action, in this country, is never far from a riverbank or a coastline.
That is not a slogan.
It is an opportunity.
Kids have become obese, bored and apprehensive. No wonder with the ludicrous TV programmes focusing on nonsense (e.g Married at First Sight), violent movies about aliens, giant cockroach like insects threatening people and a focus on unhealthy lifestyles. Is it accidental or planned to disrupt tomorrow’s society.
The outdoors is one solution. Why not a compulsory Outward Bound type youth training say over three months.
As someone who did Compulsory Military Training and felt the benefits and saw the positive effects on others, it would do much to ‘rescue’ todays kids and make better adult citizens in tomorrow’s world
I agree. A growing body of research shows that children have better physical, mental and emotional health, and even improved learning, when they play outdoors and learn skills, develop self esteem and respect for others. Hear! Hear! C Davies.