More than 320 people attended The Digital Detox's no-technology summer camp for adults, "Camp Grounded," from June 14 to 17 in a rural part of Northern California.
I previously wrote about my own experiences at the camp, but I wanted to find out what fellow campers thought about the unique digital detox weekend. At camp, there was no "W" (work talk) and we all used nicknames, so many of us exchanged information with our real identities after the experience was over.
Some of the campers were prominent startup founders in the real world. I even discovered that one of our fellow camper-counselors was former One Tree Hill actress Sophia Bush.
5 days camping in the woods. Digital Detox. No technology. And then I found a train. And it was worth… http://t.co/hI1APMvBwN
— Sophia Bush (@SophiaBush) June 17, 2013
But the beauty at camp was that the focus wasn't on Silicon Valley successes or Hollywood stardom, but on serendipitous conversations and getting to know each other's personalities — not job titles. Below are some thoughts from a sample of Camp Grounded campers that I interviewed a couple of days afterward.
Snow and Willie
Elaine Wherry, who I knew as "Snow," is a successful San Francisco Bay Area entrepreneur. Wherry co-founded social platform Meebo, which sold to Google in 2012. Her husband, Todd Masonis, who I knew as "Willie," co-founded online address book platform Plaxo, which was acquired by Comcast in 2008. Wherry told Mashable that she was checking her emails up until the "very, very last minute" before the detox began.
"Then as soon as they kind of sealed [the phone] away in the paper bag, I was done and I was just like, 'oh, this isn't so bad. I'm fine'" Wherry said.
She said the tech-free weekend made her realize she'd like to be more disciplined about using phones before bed.
"I noticed how well I fell asleep when I was there, and that was really, really nice just to be able to fall asleep thinking my own thoughts and not thinking about my to-do list ... and just being able to take that time to myself — that was really relaxing," Wherry said.
Wherry said that through Camp Grounded she wanted to relive the camp experience as an adult and to be able to learn, grow and reflect from it. "I just really appreciated the opportunity to be known for something independent of what I've done."
Red the Riot Act and Teva
Erin Robbins O'Brien, known as "Red the Riot Act" at camp, is COO of a San Francisco startup. O'Brien, 31, and digital strategist husband Cory, 28 — known as "Teva" — found the only time they really wanted a phone during the detox weekend was when they wanted to coordinate places to meet each other. (At camp, there were no clocks or watches permitted.)
"So you had to find alternate ways to figure out time and space," O'Brien told Mashable. From a work standpoint, she was never tempted to check her phone, because she said she mentally and physically prepared to be away and had warned people for weeks.
"It was kind of like being an overprotective parent that's going on their first vacation away from their child and giving the babysitter like a million instructions," said O'Brien, who is now at her fourth startup. "You realize that actually the child and the babysitter are totally fine and it's you that's a little bit neurotic and crazy."
O'Brien, who is now at her fourth startup, ended up getting 153 emails over the detox weekend.
"There aren't really any times that you're ever completely off," O'Brien said. "So when you go like that for six, seven, eight, nine months without ever turning off, ever having your cellphone more than a few feet out of reach, ever being more than a couple of hours away from your computer — I think that what happens is you develop almost a nervous tic, feeling that you've missed something or that you need to check in and make sure everything's okay.
"The thing that we all pointed out a lot was: It's really actually just a weekend and, like, half of a day," she added. "So if something can't survive without you for a weekend, then you probably set up your business improperly."
The Walrus
Fahd Butt, known as "The Walrus" at camp, is a startup software engineer from Mountain View, Calif. Butt said he had the self-awareness to acknowledge that he is a "gadget junkie."
"There would be times where I'd have my laptop, iPad, iPhone and TV — like four screens — just, like, simultaneously there around me," Butt, 28, told Mashable. "There's times where ... every device pings at the same time and … it's like three devices ... nagging me that 'something needs your attention.'"
For Butt, not only was the camp experience new, but he had to deal with the fact that he's a person who loves capturing moments with photography, art and writing. He said he brought his grandfather's old film camera to camp and ended up taking three to four reels of photographs.
"But that's actually less than what I probably wanted to take," he admitted. "And there were so many moments where I would leave my camera back at camp or ... I'd just try to avoid using it because ... then it's like I'm not really enjoying it because I'm just so focused on, 'How do I capture this for later?' How do I make this a moment I will remember later instead of a moment that I'm experiencing now?"
Butt said that, after camp, he is now being more purposeful about when he reaches for his iPhone or checks Facebook.
Gossamer
Gina Staley, known as "Gossamer," said she noticed how others were reacting with technology when she left camp. Staley, 32, works in the IT department for a major railroad company in Calgary, Alberta.
"I was paying more attention as I'm walking by people and just seeing how they're interacting with the world or how they're not interacting with the world," Staley told Mashable. "And everybody, if they're not talking with somebody, they have their heads down and they're looking at their cell phones.
That's why Staley said she's going to implement some changes in her own life. First, she wants to have different times of the day when she'll take out her cell phone, respond to texts but then put the phone away. "I don't want it in my face all the time," she said.
Second, she realized from the camp's silent dinner that she'd like to eat at least one meal a day that is not in front of a TV or computer screen. "As a single person, that's pretty typical to come home, make dinner and then sit down and watch some TV while eating," she explained.
Staley also liked the absence of work talk during conversations at camp.
"The easy thing to talk about when you're around strangers is the weather and your work," she said. "To challenge ourselves and really connect with people, it can be a little bit of work, but it also shows that there's more to life than those things."
Chamomile
Ganna Boiko, known as "Chamomile" at camp, told Mashable that she's usually a very social person, using Foursquare "100 times a day" and checking email and Facebook often.
"It was unusual for me to realize that I didn't need it at all and I didn't suffer without it," said Boiko, a 25-year-old startup entrepreneur from Los Gatos, Calif. "The main insight was actually that it's better to listen to yourself, to your needs and do not look at that small screen of the cell phone."
Boiko said that when she got home after camp she disconnected from about 10 different Facebook groups and a bunch of email forums/discussions that she said were a waste of her time. She wants to spend that time doing more valuable things, she added.
Fidget Wigglesworth, Co-Founder of The Digital Detox
Levi Felix, know as "Fidget Wigglesworth" at camp, is co-founder of The Digital Detox and told Mashable he started these retreats so people can rethink their relationship with digital devices. Felix is no Luddite himself: In fact, he's a former vice president at a Los Angeles startup, who realized he needed to slow down, the hard way. After some serious health issues stemming from his 80-hour-per-week lifestyle, Felix said he finally stepped back, traveled the world and eventually co-founded The Digital Detox.
"I think a lot of our daily life is spent jumping from one activity to another activity or from plan to plan," Felix said. "And we're not given the chance of just having really incredible, spontaneous, authentic serendipity and just going with it and meeting new people."
Felix, who has held more than a dozen similar digital detox retreats in the last year, said the majority of what ended up happening at the first Camp Grounded couldn't really be planned for.
"It just shows the magic that, when everyone puts aside all their devices and all their roles and everything and is just present, what magic can unfold from people just being there with each other."
The Digital Detox is already planning future camps and retreats, including an upcoming Ukiah, Calif., retreat in July.
"Without the distractions of digital technology for a brief period of time, and with the permission to just be yourself and to know that that's going to be accepted, the combination of those two just erupts and unfurls the opportunity for people to be totally authentic and open and share," Felix said.
"And as a result it's like: playfulness and laughing and crying and joy and extreme radical expression."
What do you think about the idea of a digital detox, even for a short period of time? Could it help you find balance with the technology in your life? Let us know in the comments.
Thumbnail and images courtesy of Scott Sporleder
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