Campfire [ EDITORIAL ] Vanishing Act THE LOST ART OF DISCONNECTING IN A DIGITAL AGE
ERROR 404. PHOTO: GARY MCGUFFIN
“Are you Tweeting?” Seriously? It can be a crushing blow to any backcoun-
try experience. Enveloped in sublime solitude, a friend’s phone lets out the cheery chirp, the confirmation of 140 characters sent to a dis- tant cellphone tower, relayed to Twitter and thus the whole world. Even 20 miles from the nearest road, the experience becomes a little less remote and a little less wild. What was the purpose of grunting up por-
tages, sacrificing blood to blackflies and bat- tling that never-ending headwind, I ask my- self, if only to stay plugged into what we’re trying to escape? We’ve brought our connec- tion to the hectic rat race—and more tech- nology than put man on the moon—with us, and it’s right here in our pockets. Keeping up with social media in the back-
country might seem like the antithesis to a wilderness adventure, but gone too are the days of simply vanishing into the woods. How digital devices are affecting wilderness experiences is a hot topic perplexing outdoor educators. As tools such as satellite communicators,
GPS devices and yes, even the iPhone, be- come smaller, cheaper and more powerful, they’ve become essentials in our camp kits. Does having them take away from what we ventured into the wilderness for in the first place? It does according to Howard Welser, an Ohio University sociology professor.
8 | Canoeroots
Technology might help protect us from
the natural world but it also separates us, he argues in the 2012 outdoor education tome, Controversial Issues in Adventure Pro- gramming. “Increasingly unavoidable use of and ac-
cess to mobile communication technology in wilderness recreation undermines core dimensions of the wilderness experience,” Welser writes. The wilderness is not just a geographical
area, but also an abstract concept defined by something untamed and uncultivated. Bringing a device that locates position with pin-point accuracy, offers zoomable maps and navigation assistance, locks us in a tech bubble that keeps us from connecting with the outdoors in a fundamental way. Todd Miner, executive director of the
Cornell Outdoor Center at Cornell Univer- sity, debates Welser, stating that technol- ogy shouldn’t be looked upon as an elec- tronic boogeyman. “Fighting technology is a futile and an ul-
timately misplaced, curmudgeony struggle,” he writes. “Technological improvements have for the most part led to safer and more enjoyable wilderness experiences…and have helped create more wilderness advocates.” Obviously the debate is subjective. What
one paddler considers appropriate technol- ogy another may consider disruptive.
Such was the case for author Ted Kera-
sote who describes in Out There: In the Wild in a Wired Age a remote northern river jour- ney with a tripping companion so smitten with his new satellite phone that he called home at least once a day and, incredibly, even called a colleague to describe a fal- con he was watching. It was disruptive to Kerasote’s experience and would likely be to yours as well. Perhaps the answer to the question of
where to draw the line can be drawn from the reasons we venture into the backcoun- try in the first place. Some go for the chal- lenge and adventure, some for escape and solitude, and others are looking only for relaxation and natural beauty. Staying con- nected—which could mean an emergency- only satellite communicator or daily texts back home—isn’t in opposition to some of those motivations. What’s important, writes Miner, is that
people are connecting with nature. And if a satellite connection facilitates that objec- tive, that’s okay. Just keep your Tweets off my camping trips—unless you’re sending a distress call for more Skittles. Canoeroots’ managing editor, Kaydi Pyette,
admits to having once Instagrammed a photo of a very pretty sunset on a wilderness trip. She promises never to do it again.
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