Unplugging in a Wireless World

Wilderness provides critical perspective for people to see their lives more clearly. Hiking, Climbing, Canoeing or Backpacking relieves us of the expectations, errands and routines of the cities. Expectations become fuller relationships. Errands are replaced with actions that directly affect your physical needs. Routine fades to rhythm. The absence of the people, places and things of home allows us to define ourselves independently.

Contemporary technology allows people to express themselves more easily: from anywhere, at anytime, and in most any medium. It is a compelling set of tools for each individual. People, especially young people, now live increasingly immersed in this ability to access information, connect with others and document a moment instantaneously. Though perhaps while expression and immersion is increasingly mastered, the value of introspection and internal identity is become eroded.

The change in photography may illustrate the point most relevantly in the context of wilderness travel. Jake Hansen was a participant on a 40+ day arctic trip 9 years ago. On their trip there was only slide film. The images they brought home exist almost exclusively in slide form. The slideshow physically is retained by only one trip participant at a time and can only be viewed with a slide projector.

Jake Hansen led my arctic trip four years ago. Two participants brought film cameras with print film. The other three brought disposable cameras. We got our pictures developed in three different formats: prints, slides and digital files. We also made a slide show on a carousel, but the campers also exchanged some of the better shots on computers. Since my year, most every slideshow exists only digitally. I imagine it would be hard to make a carousel of slides today if you wanted to.

On the trips I led this summer, all of the 17 year olds on my 22 day hike brought digital cameras. So too did the 13 year olds on a week long canoe trip. The younger kids proved much more adept at utilizing the various features of up-to-date digital cameras. They took videos of each other. The videos were apparently pretty hilarious as watching the video left them with split sides. They had to watch it again. As soon as the entertainment value of the recent video faded, the camera owner quickly turned to some videos he and his friends made back in Minneapolis. We had succeeded in slipping out of the present (picturesque Hustler Lake in the BWCA) and back to watching screens in the city. That pretty well undermines most of the reasons I enjoy taking kids on trips in the BWCA. Yet at no one point was the slide away from the present unreasonable.

The slide evoked a question for me, to what extent is technology in my life allowing me to live more fully and to what extent is it diluting my ability to make the most of the present?

The wilderness is a uniquely fantastic place to explore that question and so many others. As the world continues to become more instantaneous and interconnected it is al the more important to step back, disconnect and take time to decide which instantaneous connections are worth having.