The implications of digital visual media for human–nature relationships

Silk, Matthew J.; Correia, Ricardo A.; Veríssimo, Diogo; Verma, Audrey; Crowley, Sarah L.

doi:10.1002/pan3.10284

Cited by 15 publications

(24 citation statements)

References 57 publications

(113 reference statements)

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“…In fact, it would have been informative to assess the perceived restorativeness (Hartig et al, 1997) of both environments to gain insights into potential processes underlying the benefitial well-being effect (e.g., evoked feelings of being away). In addition, future research could address in how far different natural environments and depictions in VR or in augmented reality motivate people to act in favor of such places (e.g., Blythe et al, 2021;Dunn et al, 2021;Silk et al, 2021). For example, while our study provides a first step towards understanding potential differences between more pristine versus more man-made natural settings, we suggest that future research systematically varies the extent and amount of man-made structures.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Into the wild … or not: Virtual nature experiences benefit well-being regardless of human-made structures in nature

Reese

Mehner

Nelke

et al. 2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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Immersive nature experiences increase human well-being. There is now an increasing number of studies suggesting that virtual nature experiences—e.g., within a virtual reality (VR) environment—can evoke comparable benefits. In the current study using VR, we tested whether human-made structures within nature settings hinder such effects of virtual nature experience on well-being. To do so, 67 participants were led through a VR nature surrounding that was either wild and untouched by humans, or was characterized by few inconspicuous human structures (i.e., paths, buildings, walls, bridges). Before and after the intervention, we measured subjective vitality and after the intervention, we assessed perceived restorative outcome as two indicators of well-being. Results revealed that both virtual nature experiences improved participants’ subjective vitality. Across both groups, participants reported relatively high—and similar—levels of restoration. These findings suggest that (virtual) nature experiences can be beneficial for well-being even when human-made structures interfere. Thus, irrespective of how pristine the environment is, the beneficial effects of immersive VR nature experiences provide opportunities for well-being when physical nature is inaccessible.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Into the wild … or not: Virtual nature experiences benefit well-being regardless of human-made structures in nature

Reese

Mehner

Nelke

et al. 2022

Front. Virtual Real.

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“…Increasing smartphone use and internet accessibility blurs distinctions between producers and consumers of nature content online. But while Büscher (2016) laments the rise of so-called 'prosumers' under platform capitalism, others note the 'democratising' impact digital technologies can have (Silk et al 2021). We return to this in more depth in the next section.…”

Section: Materialities Of Digitisationmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The 'Instagrammable outdoors' reoccurs as users adhere to pre-set cultural scripts in the pursuit of likes and shares (Arts et al 2021). Charismatic animals can even attain celebrity status in digital form (Barua 2020; Dale Joshua et al 2016;Despret 2016), while smaller-bodied taxa, are often excluded from online digital encounters (Silk et al 2021), creating skewed understandings of 'pristine' nature among broad publics (Büscher 2016). Digital encounter value is thus associated with 'spectacular accumulation' (Barua 2017; see also Goodman et al 2016), which generates profit by stripping individual nonhumans from their ecologies to render them marketable.…”

Section: Digital Encountersmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Digital technologies now capture animals in their most vulnerable states-such as nesting, giving birth, mating-which they go to great lengths to conceal in the wild. An additional issue with this involves putting endangered animals at increased risk of undesirable in-person encounters, or even poaching, by people who determine their whereabouts online (Silk et al 2021). This unidirectional relation, though, is not always the case.…”

Section: Digital Encountersmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Digital ecologies: Materialities, encounters, governance

Turnbull

Searle

Davies

et al. 2022

Progress in Environmental Geography

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Digital technologies increasingly mediate relations between humans and nonhumans in a range of contexts including environmental governance, surveillance, and entertainment. Combining approaches from more-than-human and digital geographies, we proffer ‘digital ecologies’ as an analytical framework for examining digitally-mediated human–nonhuman entanglement. We identify entanglement as a compelling basis from which to articulate and critique digitally-mediated relations in diverse situated contexts. Three questions guide this approach: What digital technologies and infrastructures give rise to digital entanglement, and with what material consequences? What is at stake socially, politically, and economically when encounters with nonhumans are digitised? And how are digital technologies enrolled in programmes of environmental governance? We develop our digital ecologies framework across three core conceptual themes of wider interest to environmental geographers: (i) materialities, considering the infrastructures which enable digitally-mediated more-than-human connections and their socioenvironmental impacts; (ii) encounters, examining the political economic consequences and convivial potentials of digitising contact zones; (iii) governance, questioning how digital technologies produce novel forms of more-than-human governance. We affirm that digital mediations of more-than-human worlds can potentially cultivate environmentally progressive communities, convivial human–nonhuman encounters, and just forms of environmental governance, and as such note the urgency of these conversations.

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“…Conservation has its own fraught, colonialist history, which conservationists have increasingly worked to dismantle (e.g., [4]). While the game is not explicitly intended as a conservation game, the immense popularity of ACNH means that the values put forward in the game are likely to influence society broadly [5,6]. At this stage in the biodiversity crisis, we need all hands on deck.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Commentary: Colonialist Values in Animal Crossing and Their Implications for Conservation

Smith¹

2022

Highlights Sustain.

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In the Nintendo game Animal Crossing: New Horizons, players move to an uninhabited island and quickly become instrumental to the naming, aesthetic development, and biodiversity of the island. In some ways, the game can foster a love for and curiosity about nature. In other ways, the game reinforces harmful colonialist values and attitudes that are ultimately an obstacle to conservation in the real world. Here I critique the game values relevant to conservation, both the values that benefit and the values that hinder conservation. I discuss possibilities for a future version of the game that reinforces values better aligned with conservation.

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The implications of digital visual media for human–nature relationships

Cited by 15 publications

References 57 publications

Into the wild … or not: Virtual nature experiences benefit well-being regardless of human-made structures in nature

Into the wild … or not: Virtual nature experiences benefit well-being regardless of human-made structures in nature

Digital ecologies: Materialities, encounters, governance

Commentary: Colonialist Values in Animal Crossing and Their Implications for Conservation

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