Editorial: Go Touch Grass—For Your Mental Health
By • May 12, 2026 0 421
A phrase you may have seen online is “go touch grass.” It’s used to tell those who are constantly online to set down their devices and get outside, connect with people and nature and, you know, literally touch grass.
Ironically, it’s often used as a retort by people who are chronically online.
Joking aside, there is perhaps something to the phrase. Members of Generation Alpha, those born between 2010 and 2025, are experiencing higher levels of anxiety, directly linked to too much screen time. Not to mention how it’s become a high-tech babysitter. How many times have you seen a two-year-old scrolling through photos or operating basic phone or iPad functions? These high levels of screen time weaken emotional resilience and cause sleep disruption.
And it’s not just Gen Alpha. Older generations will benefit from breaking the doomscrolling habit, too. Plenty of the nasty comments on Facebook come from Boomers. Then there’s Millennial Burnout: couples trying desperately to be good parents as they climb the corporate ladder, constantly answering emails. And let’s not forget Gen X, juggling their workgroups’ productivity, their kids’ college funding and their aging parents’ care.
This Mental Health Awareness Month, why not head out and “touch grass?” Disconnect. Take time for yourself. Go for a walk at lunchtime. End work at your actual quitting time; working longer hours won’t do anyone any good.
Getting outside and interacting with others helps to regulate your nervous system, blood pressure and heart rate and releases those elusive “feel good” endorphins. Spending time in nature also sparks areas of the brain associated with empathy.
Your mental health is just as important as your physical health. Consider therapy, journaling or getting out in nature more often. And for heaven’s sake, if you’re not reading this in print, get off your screen!
