Purely another anecdote from my own personal experience, When watching anything on a TV screen I never feel like I have the same tangible connection with what I’m viewing.
There’s some innate connection that happens when I make real eye contact with another mammal only feet away from me. You can’t really earn the respect for nature or the respect of nature from a documentary.
Honestly it’s this same lack of connection I get on Zoom calls and I think it’s undervalued and difficult, if not impossible to measure.
I do think zoos have positively impacted many people, myself included, my kids (who are extremely passionate about taking care of the planet and animals partly due to their exposure). Of course I also feel the need to explain the business/darker side of zoos but young kids aren’t ready for the world to be so grim. They need to start learning coming from a place of optimism and hope. There will always be time for the other parts when they might actually be able to do something about it.
There’s some innate connection that happens when I make real eye contact with another mammal only feet away from me. You can’t really earn the respect for nature or the respect of nature from a documentary.
Honestly it’s this same lack of connection I get on Zoom calls and I think it’s undervalued and difficult, if not impossible to measure.
I do think zoos have positively impacted many people, myself included, my kids (who are extremely passionate about taking care of the planet and animals partly due to their exposure). Of course I also feel the need to explain the business/darker side of zoos but young kids aren’t ready for the world to be so grim. They need to start learning coming from a place of optimism and hope. There will always be time for the other parts when they might actually be able to do something about it.