Anyone who lives with a teenager knows that they tend to be inseparable from that ubiquitous appendage, the mobile phone. Between apps, snaps and socially mediating their lives, it can seem as if screen time is taking over.
While this behaviour is by no means limited to teens, they are from a generation that never knew any differently and that’s why Anne Giblin has taken action.
Derg Isle is a camp that disentangles teenagers from their phone for an entire weekend and exposes them to a wilderness-based break that swaps hashtags for hikes, bikes and good old-fashioned fun.
"We devised a digital detox camp for teenagers. A lot of parents are in a similar situation where they realise how addicted their teenagers are to their phone so we run an adventure centre on the shores of Lough Derg and we decided we’d put our heads together and do a camp specifically for this," she said.
Anne told Ryan Tubridy about some of the activities on offer.
She added, "They’re going to be distracted from Friday evening until Sunday evening… There’s a schedule in place from archery to climbing walls to zip lines to yoga to reading to canoeing."
"We have a fully-stocked pond within the centre full of brown trout and we have this very clever idea of we catch them, you clean them an you cook them so you’re guaranteed to catch a fish and then you have the joy of catching a fish which most young people, unfortunately, have never experienced and then you clean it and then you cook it on the barbecue and I suppose in its entirety it becomes a whole wonderful experience."
The camp advertises that teens will build a bonfire, climb a tree and even sleep under the stars. Ryan - who is on his own digital detox - was very enthusiastic about giving all of the above a go (with the exception of sleeping outdoors) and said it brought back the feeling of freedom that he associates with his own childhood.
"It’s a throwback to what people did years ago but unfortunately we’ve lost sight of how to actually have a little bit of fun and how you can have so much more fun in terms of interacting with other people and being outside in the fresh air and I suppose there’s so much going on."
You can get more info on the camp here and listen to the full interview from The Ryan Tubridy Show above.
