Going Analog at Camp?
Here’s a great little story on the anxiety some kids feel when forced to unplug from all their digital social networking at summer camp. I don’t blame them! Could you do it? Of course, the very fact that the thought of being disconnected scares them probably suggests it’s not a bad idea. (For the kids, I mean.)
Still, it’s got to be strange. One recent survey puts the average number of texts per teen per month in the neighborhood of 2,300. That’s almost 80 messages a day! The first question must be, “What will I do with my thumbs all day?”
According to one expert:
When camp starts, plugged-in children may feel a little disoriented, like a part of them is missing, said Michael Assel, associate professor of pediatric psychiatry at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Those feelings should subside as children get involved in camp activities, he said.
And camp counselors will tell you that kids and teens do adjust over the first few days of the camp. The Christian ones will also tell you that the following days are like a golden window in a young person’s life to fill the void left by all that absent digital noise and electronic voices with the words of God. You almost couldn’t design a better environment in which to get a student’s full attention focused on his or her relationship with God.
If your kids are thinking about going to a sleepaway Christian camp with a no-tech policy, be sure to reassure them that they’ll get through it. And then pray that God will use the silence to remind them of who He is, how much He loves them, and that He is fully able to meet all of their needs.
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