4 ms·

Lots of valid points in that article regarding the cumulative envronmental impact, but I'm baffled by some things.... I've never seen the fringe lawn fana

Lots of valid points in that article regarding the cumulative envronmental impact, but I'm baffled by some things.... I've never seen the fringe lawn fanaticism from the article in person, my experience growing up was much closer to Levitt's feelings or the middle class nostalgia: the lawn is something children mow on the weekend [...] But online culture would have me believe there's a sizeable portion of the nation fixated on lawncare as a hobby. Yeah, absolutely. I don't understand it. Movies and TV portray it that way as well -- they have you believe that all subarbanites are positively obsessed with their lawns. I've lived in middle class American suburbs nearly all my life, child and adult. Nobody obsesses over their lawns. Just never seen it. I mean, sure, if you have a lawn... you spend a certain amount of time and/or money on your lawn and while you're at it, you like to do it right. Just like literally anything else. Laundry, vacuuming, whatever. Everybody likes their home and their person to look nice if they're lucky enough to be that far up the ladder on Maslow's hierarchy of needs. The lawn thing may be somewhat unique to America but wanting one's home to look nice most definitely is not. To put it in somewhat objective terms I live on a 1/4 acre lot and I spend less than 30 minutes a week mowing and edging, for approximately 7 months per year. Lawn fertilizer is about, I don't know, $30 a year. If you buy a decent lawn mower and edger that $200-$300 and they should last 10-15 years. So I guess you can amortize that out to an additional ~$20 per year. Oh, and $10 worth of gasoline for the mower. (I was gifted an ICE mower; would have chosen electric myself)

moron4hire 5y ago
Everyone in the country consumes the same media, but that media is not produced by everyone. Most mass media is developed by urbanites in large urban centers (LA and NYC). They have a very sheltered lifestyle that leads to anything outside of it looking alien and absurd. Folks in rural and suburban areas having lawns and needing to spend an hour a week on lawncare is already infinitely more time than folk in urban centers spend on such tasks. To the urbanite, what the rest of the country considers "lawn obsessed" is only a difference of degree, not kind. For the media producer--who, again, is almost universally an urbanite--to communicate this feeling to the rest of the country, they have to exaggerate the effort spent.
- JohnBooty 5y ago
  This is all true, and is definitely a primary factor. It's also true that LA and NY draw people from all over the country. Have you ever been to LA or Manhattan? Nobody that lives there is from there. Those places are alternate-reality bubbles, for sure, but lots (most?) of those people were born somewhere else and likely grew up in a more representative part of the country. So, I think there's also an element of "artist" types rebelling against what they felt were stifling suburban upbringings? Totally unproveable of course. Just a feeling I've always gotten.
moron4hire 5y ago
Also, give up on that gifted ICE mower and go but an electric mower. It's so nice to not smell like gasoline, or have my ears ringing, or have my carpal tunnel exacerbated from vibrations. I was skeptical at first, but I made sure to get a weed wacker that takes the same batteries and it's so nice. After I got mine, half the neighborhood eventually replaced their mowers with electrics and the drop in neighborhood nose has also been great.

moron4hire 5y ago

Everyone in the country consumes the same media, but that media is not produced by everyone. Most mass media is developed by urbanites in large urban centers (LA and NYC). They have a very sheltered lifestyle that leads to anything outside of it looking alien and absurd. Folks in rural and suburban areas having lawns and needing to spend an hour a week on lawncare is already infinitely more time than folk in urban centers spend on such tasks. To the urbanite, what the rest of the country considers "lawn obsessed" is only a difference of degree, not kind. For the media producer--who, again, is almost universally an urbanite--to communicate this feeling to the rest of the country, they have to exaggerate the effort spent.

JohnBooty 5y ago
This is all true, and is definitely a primary factor. It's also true that LA and NY draw people from all over the country. Have you ever been to LA or Manhattan? Nobody that lives there is from there. Those places are alternate-reality bubbles, for sure, but lots (most?) of those people were born somewhere else and likely grew up in a more representative part of the country. So, I think there's also an element of "artist" types rebelling against what they felt were stifling suburban upbringings? Totally unproveable of course. Just a feeling I've always gotten.

moron4hire 5y ago

Also, give up on that gifted ICE mower and go but an electric mower. It's so nice to not smell like gasoline, or have my ears ringing, or have my carpal tunnel exacerbated from vibrations. I was skeptical at first, but I made sure to get a weed wacker that takes the same batteries and it's so nice. After I got mine, half the neighborhood eventually replaced their mowers with electrics and the drop in neighborhood nose has also been great.