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If you haven't camped or hiked or visited a national park in the past few years, you may be a videophiliac. Worse yet, if you have children, you may be raising them to be videophiliacs as well, according to the authors of a recent study published by the National Academy of the Sciences.

The study links a decline in these outdoor activities and a corresponding drop in national park visitation to an increase in the use of home electronics. According to the authors of the study, a videophiliac is someone who spends too much time either watching TV, playing video games or surfing the Internet.

The authors of the study, Oliver Pergams, an assistant professor of biology at the University of Chicago, and Patricia Zaradic, a conservation ecologist with the Environmental Leadership Program in Bryn Mawr, Pa., have found that the number of people engaging in these activities has been declining over the past 20 years. During the same period, the number of people visiting national parks has fallen as well. After increasing for 50 years, the number of annual visitors to our country's national parks has consistently declined since it peaked in 1987. By 2006, the number of annual visitors was 23 percent less than what it was 20 years ago.

To be honest, I have mixed feelings about this kind of information. On the one hand, I see the decline as a good thing for selfish reasons: There's more room for me. Since we married 25 years ago, my wife and I rarely let a year go by that we don't spend part of our vacation camping and hiking in one or more of our national parks. However, despite what the study suggests, we often found the parks more crowded than we would have liked. In all fairness, though, we usually take our vacations during the busiest times of the year.

On the other hand, I share the authors' concerns when they suggest that a decline in visits to national parks may also, as they put it, "greatly reduce the value people place in biodiversity conservation." As people, especially young people, spend more time sitting in front of their TVs and computers, they spend less time outside exploring and learning about the natural world.

The authors of the study point out that other researchers have found a link between environmentally responsible behavior and how much time people spend on outdoor activities in natural settings such as national parks. Fostering an appreciation for nature is especially important in children, they write. People who spent more time hiking, fishing or camping as children have been found to develop stronger environmental values as adults.

Pergams and Zaradic may be right about the link between the growing use of popular electronics and the declining number of people visiting our national parks, but there are other ways to nurture an appreciation for nature in our children, especially here in the New River Valley. One of the nation's premiere hiking trails, the Appalachian Trail, passes just north of us. A hike on any portion of this trail is enough to give one an appreciation for wild places. Likewise, though it has become an increasingly popular outdoor destination in this area, the trail to the Cascades near Pembroke is an excellent place for recharging one's connections to the natural world. Finally, the New River offers a wealth of recreational opportunity.

I'm as guilty as anyone else. I often spend too much time sitting in front of my computer or watching movies on TV. But, after reading this report, I plan to mend my ways. You can bet that as summer nears, we'll be planning our next trip to a national park. Moreover, in the coming months I'll be making more of an effort to take advantage of the natural resources available in the New River Valley.

If you're like me, you've probably been infected by the same electronics bug I have, and a little fresh air might do us all some good. We should all plan to set a better example in the coming year.

Together we can stamp out videophilia, one hike at a time.

Steve Kark teaches writing in the English department at Virginia Tech.