MuseForJews

There’s no app for that

A friend posted the following photo to Facebook today:

It’s cute. I get it.

But what I don’t get is what I perceive to be a pretty constant need to compare digital life and “real” life.

I totally understand – and agree – that there is no digital substitute for canoeing, making s’mores and hiking. Or getting mosquito bites and shvitzing in the humid summer air (in a good way).

But when are we going to just deal with it and allow that one does not substitute for the other, and that the two can happily coexist?

I remember a time when a friend who is a professional in the camping world told me that there would never, ever, be computers at his summer camp. Fast forward about fifteen years – the camp now has a vibrant media program that does a tremendous amount to add to the life of the summer camp, and to the lives of the kids who go there.

There may not be an “app for that,” but there’s an app to record great photographs of the hiking expeditions, a fun video of the kids making and eating s’mores (and fishing marshmallows out of the fire, and stealing chocolate…) and for getting the email/Facebook/cell phone numbers of all those friends so they can keep in touch during the winter.

And that’s okay.

Let’s stop making it either/or.

April 6, 2013 - Posted by Tktchr | Thinking