It is the longest hiking trail in the world.
The emblematic path of the Appalachians goes through 14 states and extends to around 2,200 miles from Georgia in Maine. Each year, at least 3 million people make them parts or the entire trail. Walk marks the month that thousands of people participated in the trip.
But this historic path is faced with a modern challenge – the omnipresent use of digital technology.
Armed with smartphones, intelligent watches, iPads, and even more, hikers of today’s Appalachians are more digitally connected than ever. And the search for Virginia Tech reveals that the connectivity of hikers with the Internet makes the management of trails much more difficult than the days preceding mobile devices.
While Trail Resource Managers struggle with these problems, the research results of Virginia Tech, Posted in the Journal of Environmental ManagementCall for a balanced approach – that which exploits the advantages of technology while preserving the natural and cultural integrity of the path.
When becoming viral is harmful
The idea of this research, fueled by a subsidy of the National Science Foundation, began several years ago when the teacher Shalini MisraWho directs the Public Interest Technology Lab in Arlington, decided to explore how or if people experience solitude in wilderness parameters with digital devices. Misra studies the psychological and social impacts of digital technologies in various contexts.
The Appalachian path, with almost a quarter of its total kilometers in Virginia, was the ideal research framework for this work, she said.
“We wanted to understand how digital technologies transform experiences of hikers’ nature,” she said. “We also wanted to understand how trades managers perceive these changes and how they see the potential opportunities and challenges of digital technologies for the sustainable management of trails.”
The team, made up of teachers and graduate students from the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences, the College of Engineering and the College of Natural Resources and Environment, interviewed 18 Appalachian trail resource managers over two years, in 2022 and 2023. Resource managers reported that technology, in particular social media, has led to the degradation of the path, Overword, and to the dissemination of social networks, among the crossroads.
Take the many panoramic sites along the path. When photos and videos are published on social networks, these sites often become hikers.
Jeff MarionA member of the research team, noted an example several years ago from Max Patch, a popular Popular Appalachian in North Carolina known for its 360 -degree views. He escaped seams with campers to the mountains every weekend. Intense interest was attributed to a series of viral publications on social networks presenting the opinions of the mountain, he said.
“Social media has the capacity to become viral in places that do not have the infrastructure to adapt to this use,” said Marion, scientist and retired instructor at the College of Natual Resources and Environment. Marion hiked in the entire Appalachian path and wrote the book “Do not leave any trace outside”, a guide to principles to enjoy the outdoors without harming the environment.
In the team’s research article, a study participant said: “The Appalachian path is loved to death.”
The staff of the Trail Visitors Center describe regular requests for hikers wishing to know where a specific photo has been taken so that they can visit this exact place. These Instagram-popular locations include the McAfee button in Virginia, where there has been a peak among visitors in recent years, with up to 600 per day, depending on the research article.
With an increase in pedestrian traffic by trails, soil erosion, exposure to roots, trash, vandalism and a multitude of other ecological problems, have reported the directors of trails. In addition, some hikers camp in illegal or inappropriate places along the path, then share this information via popular mobile hiking applications, such distance.
Hiking apps read information and camp in the same locations. Some trail stewards have said they had contacted application managers to request that inaccurate information be deleted. But there is so much information on websites that it is not easy for managers to respond and monitor all reports, according to research.
In addition, management depends on a network of volunteers from the Trail Club who do not have the financial or human resources for dedicated staff to respond to social networks publications and generally manage incorrect information found online.