refrain that geotagged posts on social media are"ruining the great outdoors," said Steve Dundas and Ashley Lowe Mackenzie of OSU's College of Agricultural Sciences.
"This has a number of interesting policy implications for public land managers," said Dundas, associate professor of applied economics."Access to information on the online activity for publicly managed areas could help administrators better understand visitor trends and behaviors to help steward these locations for current and future generations."
The researchers found that the cumulative effect of"viral" content was associated with monthly visitor increases of about 4% at four of Oregon's 50 state parks: Silver Falls in the Cascade foothills, Smith Rock in central Oregon, and Oswald West and Ecola on the coast. That is to say, it's not just sharing photos with specific geographic info that makes a difference in how many visitors a spot receives—the photos have to receive high engagement.state parks