Turning to Technology for Nature Could Help Us Feel More Connected, Experts Say

Sarah Grothjan · REI · April 29, 2020

Featuring Peter Kahn, member of the Center’s Research Collaborative and Steering Committee

Digital nature could also help with feelings of loneliness. A 2018 University of Washington (UW) study showed that university professors who worked in an office with a 50-inch plasma TV that depicted restorative nature scenes—serving, essentially, as a digital window—reported feeling connected to the outdoors and to the wider social community. They also felt less isolated in their offices. When nature is scarce, technological nature, such as a digital window, can benefit people mentally, the study found.

But these findings come with a caveat: Subsequent studies at UW showed that streaming nature on your computer or television can’t replace real outdoor time. That’s partly because there’s no fitness component of watching a livestream on your computer, so you’re not reaping the physical and mental rewards of moving your body, said Peter Kahn, a professor in the UW’s Department of Psychology and School of Environmental and Forest Sciences. The other reason: It’s difficult to replicate the full sensory experience of time outside, where you can hear, smell and see the nature around you.

“I think part of what’s troubling with the tech versions of nature … is so much of the sensory input is diminished, and it’s not real. It’s not life. It’s technology,” Kahn said, adding that he also worries about prescribing people screen time.

But now that people can’t easily get outside, Kahn said there’s an argument for using technological nature.

“I’ve … always said there are contexts of use when [technological nature] is beneficial when people cannot access nature,” he said. “Now COVID-19 comes, and we have a context of use where it’s clearly beneficial.”