iNaturalist addiction? Am I an iNat addict?!?
Probably.
I get this line quite a bit -- and I know why people say it. I'm on iNaturalist ALL of the time. When I'm working on emails or on a presentation or project, I've always got an iNat window open that I'm refreshing. When I'm outside, I've got iNat ready to go with my phone. I take photos of critters with my camera with the intent to toss them on iNat as soon as I get to my computer. For the past 10+ years, I've made iNat observations every single day! Any sane person would probably certify this as an addiction!!!
But, as I was outside looking at bugs and plants, I recognized something. iNaturalist is a tool. iNaturalist helps me engage with nature more and more. iNaturalist connects me to other naturalists that are engaging with nature. It's a tool and it's a social network.
I guess an addiction to iNaturalist is sort of like an ornithologist being addicted to binoculars, or an entomologist being addicted to bug nets. These are just tools to help us go deeper with the subject of interest. iNaturalist is about nature -- it's a way for us to go deeper with nature and unite more with other naturalists all around the world.
I think the next time I'm called an iNat addict, I'll smile, agree, and say, "You bet! I LOVE nature! Let's go outside and look for bugs." :)
