SB5_Unit1_ReadingText_page12.pdf

Life Book 5 Reading Text Page 12 Unit 1: The selfie generation We’re standing at Lees Ferry, Arizona—the launch point for a four-day raft trip through the Grand Canyon, one of the world’s most beautiful places. “Darn! No service.” That’s a good thing, I tell my son, Casey. Yes? Well, no. He’s a m...

Life Book 5 Reading Text Page 12 Unit 1: The selfie generation We’re standing at Lees Ferry, Arizona—the launch point for a four-day raft trip through the Grand Canyon, one of the world’s most beautiful places. “Darn! No service.” That’s a good thing, I tell my son, Casey. Yes? Well, no. He’s a millennial, mid-20s. I’m a baby boomer. My generation loves the national parks. His generation will have to save them. Growing up in the West, I loved the outdoors. My folks never had a lot of money, but we were rich, my mother said: All of this glorious public land was ours to enjoy. My wife and I raised our two kids to love the parks as well. But in Casey, I sensed a lack of interest. And in that, he is not alone—I have noticed a similar apathy among other people his age. “Young people,” Jonathan Jarvis, director of the National Park Service, told me, “are more separated from the natural world than perhaps any generation before them.” Jarvis has been saying this for a couple of years. A large majority of millennials—71 percent—said they would be “very uncomfortable” on a one-week vacation without connectivity. For boomers, the figure was 33 percent. On our first day on the river, Casey and I were anxious. But soon, we couldn’t wait for the next rapids. We took breaks along the shore, exploring some wildflowers here, a massive natural amphitheater there. In the evening, we spread out sleeping bags and watched the day slip away. It was sublime. But still, Casey and I experienced a bit of internet withdrawal. We should try to be mindful, I suggested. Stare at the stars. Drift. “I get it,” said Casey, “this thing about being disconnected. But … everyone I know likes to share—publicly—what we’re doing. … If you can’t share it now, is it really happening? Just a thought.”