It’s mid-July here at camp, and outside of our wonderful camp bubble, it has been a truly tragic week.
I wake up every day and think about what happened in Texas and feel a surge of sadness, but I will myself back into my immediate reality…what is going on here, on the shores of Eagle Pond.
I am in the here and now with a camp full of amazing kids and staff, and this is what I want to focus on today with all of you.
One evening, back in mid-June during our staff training before our kids had even arrived, I was walking around camp in the evening and heard a group of early-season staff sitting on the porch of Oak Lodge in deep conversation. I had to stop.
They were discussing something seemingly at odds with the star-filled sky and the crickets chirping in the background.
They were talking, with an intensity usually reserved for discussions about sports rivalries and politics, about a topic on nearly everyone’s minds right now.
A world where AI, deepfakes, and digital anxiety were beginning to infiltrate so many aspects of daily life. These returning counselors, gathered on a wooden porch in New Hampshire, were grappling with what their digital world was becoming.
And they were thinking deeply about what it might mean for the kids they were about to lead all summer. I asked to join, impressed by the depth of their thinking.
An Offline Conversation
What struck me first was how deeply they were grappling with a simple but unsettling question:
How do we know what’s real anymore?
These aren’t digital doomers. They are smart, thoughtful young adults who’ve grown up online.
But now they were questioning whether anything they saw could be trusted. AI-generated content. Deepfakes. Manipulated media. The tools of deception getting better every day.
Then someone named what was really bothering them: online engagement had become an “outrage engine.”
“We’re the product,” one counselor said. “The algorithm doesn’t care what’s true. It just wants clicks. But camp is different.”
Heads literally and figuratively nodded around the circle.
They’d figured out something important. The platforms they’d used their whole lives weren’t always built to inform or connect. Many were built to monetize attention through anger and division. To keep them scrolling, not thinking.
And this group wasn’t just complaining. They were already taking action.
Many had stepped back from social media. They talked about their desire to unplug, to find something real. They’d recognized how the constant noise was affecting them.
Now here they were doing something about it, about to spend a summer showing hundreds of kids what life looks like without the outrage engine running in the background.
They were more than ready. They were relieved.
From Anxiety to Clarity
As we sat there on the porch, something shifted. The conversation moved from what worried them to what grounded them.
They started talking about camp differently. Not as an escape from reality, but as a return to it.
Here was a place with real conversations at real speed. No algorithms deciding what they should see. No notifications pulling them away mid-sentence. Just people, together, paying attention to each other.
It wasn’t magical thinking. It was practical.
Time and space away from the noise had shown them something simple: the best preparation for navigating tomorrow’s confusion might be living fully present today. The best defense against fake might be experiencing what’s real.
They saw camp not just as a job, but as three months of practicing a different way of being human.
Walk Two: Seeing It in Action
It’s mid-July now, and I find myself walking around camp again.
This time, I’m stopping by Senior Hill or the Dining Hall or the little campfires that serve as conversation spots for our staff at night after the kids have settled in.
I stop to watch a group of teenagers recounting the soccer game they just played that was the most exciting thing they had seemingly ever seen, right to the final penalty kick.
I’m listening to vigorous debates about the issues of the day…what should be on the salad bar…what should their “giving back” project be this summer…what’s the greatest Color War breakout ever?
No phones in sight. No distractions. Just smiles and passionate exchanges about the importance of right now, bathed in the fun and excitement of a camp day.
And, of course, I’m thinking back to that porch conversation in June. Those counselors weren’t just talking about creating space away from the digital engine. They talked about the way they wanted their lives to be. And now they’re living it. And more importantly, they’re passing it on.
They are focused on their campers and the joyous whitewater of camp life. They are building excitement for the days and weeks ahead and celebrating the achievements of their kids. There’s some refereeing too. And extending a helping hand every day to any camper that needs it.
What they understood in theory, they’re now practicing daily along with the campers.
What they worried about in June, they’re actively addressing in July.
Not through lectures about screen time or the dangers of AI. But through something far more powerful: showing kids what it feels like to be fully present. Fully human. Fully here. For each other.