Troop Life - Phones at the Campfire
| Category: | Troop Life |
|---|---|
| Notes: | For the meeting before a campout, or at the campfire itself. This minute is about being present, not about online behavior. For that, see digital-cleanliness and digital-trustworthiness. Works whatever your troop's phone policy is. Part of a Troop Life series - see the other minutes in this category. |
Picture a campfire. Twelve Scouts sitting in a circle. The fire is crackling, there are stars overhead, and somebody is halfway through a really good story.
Now picture half of those faces lit up blue, from below, by a phone.
I'm not going to tell you phones are bad. They're useful. They have maps, flashlights, and cameras, and in an emergency they can save a life. Most of you will spend a big part of your lives looking at one.
But here's the thing. A campout is one of the very few places left where you get to be all the way somewhere. Not halfway here and halfway in a group chat. All the way here. With these people, by this fire, under these stars.
The stuff on your phone will still be there on Sunday. The stories, the jokes, and the moment when the whole patrol is laughing so hard nobody can breathe only happen once. If you're looking down, you miss them. And nobody can text them to you later.
So here's my challenge. Whatever our phone rules are, try going further on your own. Put it away. Not because I said so, but to find out what you notice when you're really here.
You might be surprised how much there is.