I am an old guy, and as such, grew up in the outdoor environment, enjoying everything the outdoors had to offer, and what I could afford. As a result, I learned to participate in, and love, a great number of sports, climbing, caving, diving, camping, hiking, etc. You get the idea. However, upcoming generations, including my grandchildren, grew up with computer games and reality TV rather than enjoying, and participating in, the great outdoors and actually doing real world activities. It is sad, but I do not think diving is ever going to be able to compete with computer games, at least in my lifetime, and most likely anytime in the future.
Also, the undersea world as presented on shows like Blue Planet, give an overly picturesque image of what people actually see when they dive deeper than the colors remain visible. For example my wife went from watching shows like Blue Planet, with the spectacular underwater colors, to shallow snorkeling in Cayman, to getting OW certified, then returning to dive the Cayman reef, only to be really disappointed to see mostly blue, green and brown at normal depths on typical dive trips. Now, her favorite memories are snorkeling 2 feet above the coral in Komodo, diving with the Mantas at Bora-Bora, or loitering over a colorful reef in very shallow water. I got hooked on diving watching black and white Sea Hunt, so the first time I dove in the ocean, it was in shallow water at Pennekamp, and I was mesmerized by the colors. I still loving diving, even if mostly what I see is blue, green and brown, partly because I know what it would look like if illuminated, and I like the structure almost as much as the color. However, if I show non-divers some color corrected photos or photos taken in sunlit shallow water on a beautiful reef, they say "Oh, I would love to see that", but show them photos taken at 60+ feet that are not color corrected, and the reaction is quite different. Their interest in diving goes way down when they understand what they will see most of the time underwater.
Also, the undersea world as presented on shows like Blue Planet, give an overly picturesque image of what people actually see when they dive deeper than the colors remain visible. For example my wife went from watching shows like Blue Planet, with the spectacular underwater colors, to shallow snorkeling in Cayman, to getting OW certified, then returning to dive the Cayman reef, only to be really disappointed to see mostly blue, green and brown at normal depths on typical dive trips. Now, her favorite memories are snorkeling 2 feet above the coral in Komodo, diving with the Mantas at Bora-Bora, or loitering over a colorful reef in very shallow water. I got hooked on diving watching black and white Sea Hunt, so the first time I dove in the ocean, it was in shallow water at Pennekamp, and I was mesmerized by the colors. I still loving diving, even if mostly what I see is blue, green and brown, partly because I know what it would look like if illuminated, and I like the structure almost as much as the color. However, if I show non-divers some color corrected photos or photos taken in sunlit shallow water on a beautiful reef, they say "Oh, I would love to see that", but show them photos taken at 60+ feet that are not color corrected, and the reaction is quite different. Their interest in diving goes way down when they understand what they will see most of the time underwater.
