Tech-Knowlede

The other night I received a text message from my little sister, who is away at camp for the first time. It made me realize that nowadays we take our gadgets absolutely everywhere, and though this allows us to keep in constant contact with the ones we love, I can’t help but wonder if there are times when it might be better to just ‘unplug’.

I go out at night, and despite the excitement, the pounding music, and wall to wall bodies, there are always people staring into their phones, blackberries and pagers (do people other than doctors still have pagers?) communicating with the outside world instead of living in the moment, kicking up their heels, and having a good time. Our lives are hectic enough as it is, and yet we still often forget to take a moment for ourselves that doesn’t involve simultaneously watching TV, surfing the ‘net and chatting on the cell phone.

Although I am still considered young by most standards, a lot has changed since I was a kid. I yearn for simpler times when bragging rights were earned by being able to spit farthest, rather than who had the newest iphone. Don’t get me wrong, I’m no technophobe, I just worry that people today are no longer able to engage the world without an interface.

Perhaps I’m exaggerating, but I sat there last night imagining a cabin of kids sitting quietly on their bunk beds - the electronic glow illuminating their young faces - and I shed a tear for all the unbraided lanyards and dusty tennis racquets, the bygone days of exuberant missives from the bunkhouse scrawled on fancy stationary; rainy day arts and crafts replaced with ipods and IMing on the camp wifi.

To me summer camp was sacred. It meant freedom, friends, running around like crazy people trying all kinds of new activities – and I’m sure that in reality not all that much has changed. So I guess the question is, why bring this stuff to camp. Isn’t camp already fun?
Isn’t life fun?

I say we all need to try living in the moment more, and stop feeling like we need to be available to everyone we know, all of the time. It is okay to just have an evening out on the town without texting the play by play of the evening to your 600 friends on Facebook. Unplug, let go, jump in and see what adventures you’ll find!
It’s okay – you can always blog about it tomorrow.

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Elaine Raskin is the Director of Communications and Events at Talk To Jess. A Brooklyn native, she now lives in Los Angeles helping Jess transform the self-esteem of women and girls worldwide.