New DEP “Pocket Ranger” Park App A Move Toward Privatization and Commercialization
Parks provide solace, nature, reflection, and escape from the commercial high tech world
NO ADVERTISING WANTED!
As part of the Christie Administration’s Parks Privatization plan, the DEP is touting a new smartphone app for State Park users:
13/P2) TRENTON –The Department of Environmental Protection has launched a new mobile phone application designed to provide information and technology to guide and enhance users’ hunting, fishing and wildlife watching experiences, and to provide added safety and enjoyment for outdoor enthusiasts at all of New Jersey’s wildlife management areas, state parks and forests, and other public open spaces.
“This is part of the Christie Administration’s continuing effort to bring more people into our state parks and wildlife areas, to enhance offerings and make it easier and more convenient for our residents to enjoy the great diversity of fish and wildlife and outdoor recreation opportunities in New Jersey,’’ said DEP Commissioner Bob Martin.
The application is a move towards privatizing and commercializing the park experience.
The initiative reveals a deep misunderstanding of the value of an outdoor parks experience.
People visit state parks to get outdoors, experience nature, relax, and have solace and refuge from our increasingly commercial, artificial, and high tech daily life.
The DEP’s “Pocket Ranger” application includes advertisements, exposing parks users to commercial pitches just at the point they are going to a get away from all that and enjoy the simplicity of the outdoors.
People long for an old school parks experience – where information is provided by a conversation with a real professionally trained and knowledgeable park ranger, not a electronic advertising gadget.
The whole point is to get kids away from 24/7 on line life and experience nature directly. The “Pocket Ranger” locks them into that dead digital world.
Are we going to see a generation of youngsters with their heads down eyes locked on the smartphone screen as they hike and canoe in state parks? It really disappoints me now to come across people on cell phones or texting on trails – that should not be encouraged!
This is another sad example that illustrates that all the Christie folks are aware of and care about is money – demeaning the park visitor as just another consumer and degrading the park experience to just another market opportunity. Here’s Larry rangonese of DEP press office confirming just that:
“People come to the parks for nature and history, but that doesn’t mean we can’t offer them something to go with it.”
[and how would people react to a “Pocket Priest”? Keep the moneychangers out of the temple!]
The application also subjects users to commercial advertising pitches and invasions of personal privacy.
We urge potential users to read the fine print: buyer beware!
From the PocketRanger website:
5. Participants in our “Pocket Ranger® GeoChallenges” must register to participate through the Pocket Ranger® software or affiliate sites. Those who do not participate in the Contest do not need to register. The registration process requires Contest participants to provide their legal name, create a username, and supply their email address. The information supplied during the registration process may be shared with our third party partners. From time to time, Contest participants will receive benefits and incentives emails from us or our third party partners. No other personal information will be shared with our third party sponsors. We believe, in good faith, that our third party partners will protect your data using similar safeguards as those described in this Privacy Policy.