Here’s an article at the WaPo on nature deficit disorder.
I wasn’t that big on playing outside as a kid, myself, though I do remember messing around in a small woods near our house. I also used to fish at our cottage up in northern Michigan in the summer, and pick berries. But I always preferred to read.
But I enjoy nature now, as an adult, particularly when I lived out west, and there seemed to be so much more of it.
[Afternoon update]
Lileks has some related thoughts:
The reasons for the decline seem fairly obvious. The fewer kids growing up on farms or in small rural communities, the less hunting you have. The more expensive cabins get, the less access the middle-class has to the lakes, so kids don