I’m That Mom Who Didn’t Download the Camp Photo App
We love this Kveller article by SLC mom, Mara Bragg. Matching the energy of her son at camp, she’s taking her own summer tech hiatus. Learn how she’s finding balance in a disconnected world and tapping into SLC’s ethos of “Unplug, Connect. Grow.”
I know my son is having a great time being unplugged at summer camp — and I’m challenging myself to do the same.
My son is loving overnight camp — so the app says. Its facial recognition software is scarily good, so the tagged photos, including his head in the back of a crowd, go straight to the front of the photo queue. There he is, my mop-haired, blue-eyed boy, smiling and happy. But my phone doesn’t ping with each arriving snapshot. I’m not compulsively checking to see if new pics have dropped since the last time I checked, oh, a few minutes ago. Don’t tell anyone… but I didn’t download the camp app on my phone this year.
To see photos, I have to get out my laptop and sift through hundreds of untagged photos of the whole camp, or sneak a peek at my husband’s phone after dinner. He’s got the app.
My son’s camp is “unplugged,” which means his phone is hanging out at home for four weeks. If he’d snuck it in his duffle bag on the sly, he would have been given amnesty on Day 1 to turn it over to camp staff, or risk getting sent home with no tuition refund. Ouch. The rules are strict, and the consequences clear. This is what it takes for kids to separate from their phones.
What does it take for me, as a parent, to separate from my phone? Or at least reduce my attachment to this enticing time-suck of a device? If not threats, then how about the same challenge to unplug, camp-style, as much as I can, while still holding down work, life and home fronts.
