Several of America's national parks have seen a sharp rise in graffiti over recent years, with some parks reporting record-high rates of vandalism. Cacti and petroglyphs, some of which are more than 150 years old, have been subject to vandalism. The damage is costing national parks with tight budgets extra money. An article in The New York Times quotes park staff linking this increase to the rise of social media. Lorna Lange, a spokesperson for the Joshua Tree National Park, explains that "with social media, people take pictures of what they've done or what they've seen. It's much more instantaneous." It's this instant gratification, explains NYT, that could stimulate the impulse to deface remote sites with graffiti that will rarely be seen in person.