By Andy Pritikin

At a local restaurant last week with my family, we were seated next to a family who had just given their order to the waiter. They then immediately took out their phones and proceeded to stare, scroll, and play on them for the entire time they were waiting for their food… and then continued while they were EATING! Crazy, but not surprising these days, and it made me think of Jonathan Haidt’s 2024 book, “The Anxious Generation: The Great Rewiring of Childhood.”

According to research cited by Haidt, the average teen spends five hours per day on social media, mostly on TikTok and YouTube. If you add messaging, video games, school, TV- it’s 8-10 hours per day on screens, leaving little room for much else.  We are all being constantly interrupted and distracted by an average of 257 notifications per day- kids during school or doing homework, and adults during work and with their families. This “attention fragmentation” reduces our capacity to stay on task, get things done, and pay attention to what’s around us.

“Phone-based childhood” took off with the introduction of the iPhone in 2009, with most young teens having a smartphone in their pocket by 2015. Children’s lives quickly went from the real world to the digital world, connected to the internet while disconnected from one another. Kids went from watching TV together as a family or group of friends, to going over to each other’s houses and watching different videos on their separate phones. Even video games now force kids to play in separate homes, on separate consoles, alone.

Haidt cites this kind of social deprivation as a major factor for anxiety with young people. Kids need to spend time with other kids to develop their social skills. Once kids get a phone, data shows that their actual time with friends, plunges. “Online time with friends” is no substitute. Screen-free Summer Camp is the perfect antidote to this social development epidemic.

Haidt offers four common sense solutions to help children navigate modern society:

1. No Phones in the Schools– It’s happening already! In the UK, Canada, 18 US states, and brave school districts willing to go against the will of needy parents (Kids actually love it!) Banning phones in schools is a return to sanity, with test scores this year improving by 6% in schools with banned phones.  We’ve never allowed phones at my Summer Camps, and the kids consistently THANK US for it.

• No Smart Phones until High School– Give’em a flip phone! 10- and 11-year-olds only have smart phones because “everybody else has them,” a true tragedy of the commons. Hold back giving your kid a phone risks them being socially isolated and miserable- or, do what everyone else does, and risk making your child stressed, and depressed, with unnecessary social pressures and unfiltered nonsense. It’s a no-win situation for parents… until Summer Camp season rolls around!!

• No Social Media Until Age 16– it’s just not suitable for minors, and we all know it. TikTok has been socializing our teens the past few years, with an addiction similar to gambling, resulting in significant mental health issues. If any other consumer product had this kind of negative effect, we’d do something about it. But Americans overprotect our kids from the “real world,” while under-protecting them from the virtual world of algorhithmic and human internet predators. Bring on Summer Camp screen detox!

• More Unstructured, Unsupervised Play– Humans enjoyed a play-based childhood for millions of years, as mammals play is key for all mammals in brain development, developing skills, and risk taking. Young people NEED play, thrills, and excitement, and boys need physical play. This was the norm prior to the 1990s. We played outside, got into trouble, and learned how to stay out of trouble. Then, parents and schools became focused on prepping for career success, but not for life. Teachers teach for the test, while parents navigate their kids’ lives to get them into the right college, the right job, and the right salary. Society decided that we needed more math and less recess, while kids just need to go out and play. While Summer Camp is supervised, it’s a place where kids learn how to develop and manage social relationships.

High quality Summer Camps cultivate a strong sense of community and purpose, encouraging their campers and staff to empathize and help one another, which brings residual joy, and a sense of optimism.

Summer Camp feels so magical to kids because it fosters a unique sense of community that’s unlike anything else in their lives. A tight community looking out for one another, giving comfort, knowing that they can count on each other, while developing the skills of making and keeping friends.

At Summer Camp, kids develop strong relationships with their peers and role-model counselors, creating a foundation that forges resiliency in the face of stressors like the heat, liquid sunshine, frustrations, disappointments, compromises, and more. They learn that it’s easier to handle challenging situations when part of a supportive community. Camp doesn’t eliminate hardships; it cultivates relationships that will be there to support us through tough situations.

When speaking with Jonathan Haidt recently, I told him all about Liberty Lake, with our outdoor, screen-free, supportive community. He’s a big believer in Summer Camp, and wanted me to convey to our camp parents that perhaps the biggest benefit of the camp experience is the aspect of risk-taking, forcing kids out of their comfort zones, and pushing them beyond their perceived limits. It’s a skill that children can’t learn while sitting home in bubble-wrap or being shuttled to and from adult led obligations. The learned skill of taking safe risks as a young person will help them find the courage in life to try new things, take chances on a great idea, ask someone out on a date, put down their phone and get off the couch to go out and experience the rites of passage in life that can only be achieved through real, human relationships.

Andy Pritikin is the owner/director of Liberty Lake Day Camp in Bordentown, NJ, as well as the co-owner of Everwood Day Camp in Sharon, MA, and Camp Southwoods in Paradox, NY. He’s the Past President of the American Camp Association NY/NJ, and the host of the “Day Camp Podcast”