Going Places

Summer 2014

Issue link: http://digital.canadawide.com/i/299622

Contents of this Issue

Navigation

Page 7 of 67

8 G O I N G P L A C E S | S U M M E R 2 0 1 4 STEVEN P. HUGHES Cutting the Cord Unplug the gadgets and connect with one another on your next family vacation by Curtis Gillespie I f you're a parent and have ever had this experience, put up your hand (I would ask you to Tweet me, but that might defeat the purpose of the article). You're on holiday and pass through an incredible landscape or see an astounding sight, so you holler into the recesses of your vehicle at your kids: "Look at that amazing mountain/cloud/elk/tree/ exploding volcano-with-lava-spewing-down- the-hill-toward-our-van!" To which the response – once earbuds/ headphones/smartphones/laptops/DVD players have been unplugged or removed – is invariably a half-glance followed by a bored, "Oh . . . cool." Cue reinsertion of devices. But here's a question: What would a holi- day be like if, in fact, we didn't use our elec- tronic gadgets for a spell, or, heaven forbid, if we didn't even take them along? With the right attitude and approach, unplugging might just free you up to experience your fam- ily adventures instead of obsessing over cap- turing them digitally. There are many ways to pursue a lo-fi holiday. e simplest and easiest is to go cold turkey and remove the temptation: camping or backpacking in a remote area with no cell reception, much less wireless; taking an RV into the Manitoba wilderness. If your family is not in need of such a dramatic statement, then a simple cottage rental without Internet access or an activity-focused resort could do nicely. Given the ubiquity of technology in our lives and worlds, it's most likely that any sort of wirelesslessness will require a family con- tract. Heck, you could even write it up with a pen and paper (for younger readers, please ask your parents to describe these artifacts). Mom decides to forgo Facebook for a day. Daughter does without smartphone for same period. Dad agrees to hold o on checking his work email. Or how about: no Internet one day a week. All devices go into a suitcase for an afternoon. e family goes for a hike with no cameras, phones or video equipment. Agree to do one thing every day that you will com- mit to memory, to create shared stories that you tell back to one another in conversation, sitting around the campfire – metaphorical or otherwise. There is also the "surrender control" option, which we pursued when visiting Aus- tralia a few years ago – we let the kids decide what we were going to do on any given day, as long as it was new, active, outdoors and some- thing we could all do together: swimming, hik- ing, penguin watching. You're likely to be on safely unwired ground if the activities involve two things: physical movement and fresh air. A key factor in the unplugged vacation is that parents need to set the example, since slouching on the couch watching golf on TV with a brew in one hand and your smartphone in the other is just as powerful a message at the lake as it is at home. If we tell our kids to unplug, we must do the same. So remind your- self: as important as you no doubt are at work, you are more important to the people you're on holiday with. If we're able to unravel, even for a day, the wires, circuits, signals and transmissions that surround us, our relationships to the world and one another migh t actually improve. So I give the unplugged vacation a thumbs-up – the original "digital" communication. GP TRAVEL SMARTS No GPS required with CAA's TripTiks. Get personally prepared maps and directions for free from any service centre or online at caamanitoba.com. With the right attitude and approach, unplugging might just free you up to experience your family adventures instead of obsessing over capturing them digitally. p08-09TravelSmarts.indd 8 14-04-10 2:18 PM

Articles in this issue

Links on this page

view archives of Going Places - Summer 2014