Many observers believe that smartphone addiction among U.S. children has reached epidemic proportions. Several school systems are taking steps such as banning phones in class, families are designated phone-few zones in their homes, and now, some parents are sending their addicted offspring to $2,000 per week “digital detox” summer camps.
An average of 29% of children and young adults are said to suffer from device addiction. Studies have shown that excessive smart device use among teens leads to increased depression rates among users, with some users even considering suicide.
A Wired report reveals how high-priced summer camps are now available to help parents cure their teens’ smartphone addictions by going cold turkey for the summer.
The Wired report includes the story of one child that attended the camp had three phone son him. One of the phones he turned over to counselors, but then a second phone was discovered in the id’s bag, and still a third was found after a roommate finked on him.
Still another child ran away from the camp, and once the highway patrol found him and returned him to the camp, the teen went on a three-day hunger strike, resulting in a visit to a nearby hospital.
Attendees of the “digital detox” camps can engage in the usual summer camp activities, like swimming, crafts, and such, counselors find themselves forced to get their charges out of their bunks before noon, and once they’re up to get them to eat a healthy diet in place of their usual Doritos and Mountain Dew intake.
Kids who attend the camp are often socially awkward, unable to communicate face-to-face in little more than grunts and mumbled abbreviations. They prefer to communicate via text messages and social apps.
Attendees are generally teens ranging from 13 to 17 years old. 70% of attendees are boys, and 30% are girls. The boys are usually gamers, while the girls are generally wannabee social influencers.
By placing the campers in a dorm room with one or two other campers, the camp encourages anti-social campers to bond with each other. They don’t want to be there, they hate their parents for sending them there and they hate the counselors for taking their phones, so they inadvertently bond without wanting to.
“So we have them on a very specific schedule. They’re in their dorm rooms by 9:30 and have their lights out by 10. And then we wake them up at 6:30. I always tell my staff, ‘Plan on not sleeping much the first week,'” says the camp founder.
While the camp has the usual camping activities, swimming, crafts, and such, camper must also attend educational sessions, such as a financial literacy class. Several kids have maxed out their credit cards by making in-game or in-app purchases. Once that card is full, some have even stolen their parent’s card or even a friend’s card to allow them to buy more virtual stuff.
Camp counselors never go so far as to tell the kids to never again play video games or browse the web again, recognizing that today’s always-online world simply doesn’t allow that.
Some campers come back to the camp after their first time. Thankfully, that’s not because they’ve relapsed, but to help a new batch of addicted teens to break the cycle by sharing their experiences.
(Photo by Kyle Smith on Unsplash)
