Apps can never replace nature — but they can help fill the gulfs created by the pandemic
For Elizabeth, a 40-year-old HR manager currently on furlough, her first reaction when the pandemic exploded into the headlines was to ignore the news. “I just didn’t listen to anything,” she says. “For my self-preservation, I just shut down.”
Confusing information over the duration and frequency of outdoor exercise — which she initially thought was limited to one hour a day — only added to her anxiety. She sought refuge in her garden, which was a small concrete yard that backed onto a ginnel. She used the RHS Grow Your Own app to help make the space greener. Over the summer she and her girlfriend, who she lives with, grew raspberries, tomatoes, strawberries, peppers and purple runner beans.
One day during the height of the nation’s first lockdown, Elizabeth passed by a house on her way to her local park. She noticed a corner in the front garden that was crowded with cornflowers. It took her a moment to realise what they were. She had only seen cornflowers in their cerulean blue — the pale, almost watercolour quality of the lilac hues and the gentle wash of pinks surprised her. “I’d never seen those colours before,” she said.
Now when Elizabeth goes on her daily walk, she likes to look into people’s gardens. The ones with well-manicured lawns and neat, boxy hedges belong to pensioners. The ones choked with yellowing weeds are valiantly tended to by university students. “I love seeing colour, especially on the rare bluebird days we get in Manchester,” she said.
After seeing the cornflowers, Elizabeth has started using PictureThis, an app that identifies plants “It’s so easy to snap a picture,” she says. “I love taking photos of flowers, it helps soothe my mind.” The area where she lives sits in Manchester’s suburbs, close enough to the city’s centre to feel exciting, but far out enough to enjoy the quiet leafy avenues and parks.
Who gets to enjoy nature?
Touted by some as being ‘the great leveller’, the coronavirus pandemic has been anything but. Lockdown wrenched socio-economic disparities into the spotlight, and one issue which quickly rippled to the surface was people’s access to green spaces.
In March 2020, Derbyshire Police garnered widespread criticism after releasing drone footage of walkers in the Peak District. Labelled as ‘sinister’ and facing accusations of ‘nanny policing’ the force apologised, but continued what some see as ‘overenthusiastic’ interpretation of lockdown regulations. This month, the force fined two women for allegedly breaching lockdown restrictions after they drove to a beauty spot for exercise.
The socio-economic disparities are perhaps most evident when it comes to housing. Accessing green space and nature is a different story for city dwellers who are trapped inside one-bedroom flats and the multigenerational families who live under one roof.
For those like Elizabeth, who live in rural areas or in suburban neighbourhoods, the issue of accessing to green spaces is minor. Though her garden is not big, she is lucky to have one. There are seven parks within a three-mile radius of where she lives, all easily reached by foot, car and bicycle. “Parks are essential for my mental health,” she said. “Using the apps has enhanced my experience of the natural world, but I still need the real thing.”
Journalist Etan Smallman shared his experiences of garden envy in the i Paper (dubbed ‘gardenfreude’ by a Twitter follower). “I am inordinately grateful for my nine precious outdoor steps that lead up to my flat, which I have bedecked with plant pots.” He wrote. “But it is not the same as having a lawn on which to sprawl…”
In July 2020, Selena Gray a Professor of Public Health at the University of the West of England and Alan Kellas, a Nature Matters representative for the Royal College of Physicians wrote about ‘green poverty’ in the BMJ. In their piece, they said, ‘limited opportunities to ‘access outside space particularly affect children living in disadvantaged areas’.
“In the longer term this pandemic has highlighted the inadequate, and unequal, access by different populations to high quality green space in our towns and cities, and the high proportion of individuals living in housing with no access to gardens, allotments or communal green space.”
— Extract from ‘Covid-19 has highlighted the inadequate, and unequal, access to high quality green spaces’
Last year, The Guardian reported that a Ramblers/YouGov survey found that poorer people and those from ethnic minority backgrounds were more likely to live further away from green spaces. This disparity is heightened in urban areas.
The results showed that more than two-fifths (42%) of people from ethnic minorities live in England’s most green space-deprived neighbourhoods, compared with just one in five white people.
The kids are alright — the power of Gen Z and TikTok
Social media trends such as #cottagecore and #hygge have also spurred a flurry of popular nature-themed videos on apps like TikTok.
Created under the umbrella of ‘mindfulness’, many of these hyper-short videos (some no longer than 1 minute long yet racking up almost a million likes) depict idyllic scenes such as people hiking in the wilderness or cooking on open campfires in a forest.
Reinforcing community bonds in the age of social distancing
Apps will never replace the vitalness of the natural world, but ones like Geocaching can encourage greater interaction with it and reinforce community bonds. There are plenty of people who enjoy geocaching, and YouTube videos such as ‘Is This the UK’s Hardest Geocache?’ are popular.
The first time Mollie, a 23-year-old French and English Literature student, heard about Geocaching was when her 17-year-old cousin showed it to her. Geocaching can be best described as a treasure hunt — participants hide notes and objects outside, leaving clues on the app. Other people try and find these using either a GPS tracker or a phone.
Mollie never sees or meets the people who leave behind the trinkets and scraps of paper tucked into nooks and crannies around Manchester. But in a way, it feels like they are there.
The best clues are the cryptic ones and the most rewarding finds are the ones in quirky places — crude, makeshift pulley systems in trees, a box nesting along a riverbank. “It’s got me outside, it’s got my housemates out, we’re going for walks and getting fresh air,” she said.
Whilst she thinks the people’s interest in geocaching will dwindle post-pandemic, she values the activity’s ability to reconnect people with nature. “It’s a nice way of feeling less lonely,” she said.
