What does “touch grass” actually mean?
“Touch grass” is internet slang for “you’ve been online too long, go outside.” Here’s where it came from, whether it’s rude, and how to actually do it.
Short answer: “touch grass” is internet slang for you have been online too long, please go outside and rejoin reality. People say it when someone is way too heated about an online argument, a game, or a piece of drama that does not exist anywhere outside a screen.
Where “touch grass” came from
Nobody knows exactly who said it first. It’s generally traced to gaming culture in the mid-to-late 2010s, with uses on Twitter going back to around 2015. It went much wider during the pandemic, when everyone was inside and very online, and by 2021 it was fully mainstream (Mental Floss).
It has cousins: “go outside,” “log off,” “go for a walk,” and the slightly crueler “have you considered having a hobby.” “Touch grass” won because it’s short, a little absurd, and weirdly specific. Not go outside. Touch. The grass.
Is “touch grass” an insult?
Depends who’s saying it and how.
- In an argument, it’s a dismissal: “your opinion is so online it doesn’t count.” Usually rude, occasionally deserved.
- Between friends, it’s affectionate teasing: “you’ve been in your room for three days, I’m worried, here’s a joke about it.”
- Said to yourself, it’s honestly decent advice. “I need to touch grass” is a very self-aware sentence.
Rule of thumb: if you wouldn’t want to hear it while you were having a bad day, don’t drop it on a stranger who’s having one.
How to actually touch grass (the practical version)
The meme is a joke, but the instruction underneath is pretty sound. Here’s the low-effort version:
- Pick a time box, not a goal. “Fifteen minutes outside” is easier to start than “go for a run.” You can always stay longer.
- Choose the closest green thing. A park, a garden, a tree-lined street, a patch of lawn outside the library. It doesn’t need to be scenic. It needs to be close.
- Put the phone in a pocket you don’t like reaching into. Keep it for safety and directions. Just make it slightly annoying to check.
- Give yourself one tiny job. Find three different leaf shapes. Find the weirdest dog. Find a bench and sit on it like a retired person who has seen things. A job beats wandering aimlessly if your brain keeps asking “and now what?”
- Optional: literally touch the grass. We’re not going to tell you it realigns your energy. It’s just a nice texture.
You don’t need a whole hike. A bench and a weird little leaf count. I’m a tuft of grass. I would know.
How much time outside is “enough”?
Two studies get quoted a lot here, and both are more forgiving than you might expect:
- About two hours a week. A study of nearly 20,000 people in England found that people who spent at least 120 minutes in nature in the past week were more likely to report good health and wellbeing than people who spent none. It didn’t matter whether that came from one long visit or several short ones (White et al., 2019, Scientific Reports). That’s an association from survey data, not proof that the grass did it, but it’s a useful benchmark: roughly 17 minutes a day.
- About 20 to 30 minutes at a time. In a smaller study, city-dwellers took short “nature pills” several times a week: sitting or walking somewhere that felt like nature, with no phone, social media, or reading. Their stress hormone (cortisol) dropped the most efficiently in the 20 to 30 minute range (Hunter et al., 2019, Frontiers in Psychology).
Translation: a short walk to the nearest park, a few times a week, is a completely respectable amount of grass.
Sources
- Mental Floss: Why do we tell people to “go touch grass”?
- White, M. P. et al. (2019). Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature is associated with good health and wellbeing. Scientific Reports.
- Hunter, M. R. et al. (2019). Urban nature experiences reduce stress in the context of daily life based on salivary biomarkers. Frontiers in Psychology.
