To Heal Our Nation, 'Touch Grass'

To Heal Our Nation, ‘Touch Grass’

Trading screen time for green time yields health benefits and could help mend our fractured nation, says NWF President and CEO Collin O’Mara

By Collin O’Mara
NWF News
Mar 26, 2026

Collin O’Mara, his wife and two of his daughters enjoy the Delaware Bayshore.

ONE OF MY FAVORITE SLANG EXPRESSIONS IS “TOUCH GRASS.” Kids playing video games often will use it when they think a fellow player has spent too much time online and lost touch with reality. With those two words, they’re offering a simple yet profound message: Nature has an indispensable role to play in improving our mental and physical health.

Over the past few decades, Americans have traded more and more green time outdoors for screen time. Excluding work and school, adults average seven hours a day online, while many teenagers spend nearly nine hours on screens.

This is not a benign habit. Neuroscientists link so much digital exposure to thinning of the cerebral cortex, the brain’s center for memory and decision-making, and desensitization of our dopamine reward system, mirroring the effects of addiction. Time spent online literally is rewiring our brains.

At the same time, the algorithms determining what we see online trap us in ideological feedback loops that amplify outrage and deepen animosity toward people with different beliefs. The off-ramp from this cycle does not exist in the virtual world that is making us sick. Reconnecting with nature is a tangible, science-backed way to heal both our minds and our body politic.

Numerous scientific studies confirm that spending time in nature triggers a cascade of physiological and mental health benefits, from reducing levels of the stress hormone cortisol and lowering blood pressure to decreasing depression. Neuroimaging shows that time in nature also stimulates brain regions involved in human empathy—exactly what our polarized society needs to rediscover.

Nature also can help heal our fractured nation. While Washington remains gridlocked on issue after issue, conservation consistently transcends the partisan divide. We saw this when the Great American Outdoors Act passed with overwhelming bipartisan support during the first Trump administration, and we’re seeing it today as thousands of groups rally together to pass the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act.

To begin repairing ourselves and our nation, we should each commit to replace some screen time with green hours. At a time when life can seem fraught with complexities, one of the best things we can do for ourselves and for the next generation is simply opening the door and stepping outside. A few years ago, the National Wildlife Federation launched a program, called Green Hour^®, that has helped millions of Americans spend more time in nature.

As we celebrate the nation’s 250th anniversary, let’s recommit to conservation as a unifying national priority by “touching grass”—turning away from our screens, stepping outside and exploring our natural wonders, together.