Remedy for loneliness and burnout?<\/p>\n
Adults across generations \u2014 from Gen X to Millennials to Gen Z \u2014 are embracing camp life as a remedy for two major ills of modern life: loneliness and burnout.<\/p>\n
\u201cHundreds of millions of people every day feel a gap between their level of connection and where they want it to be, for a variety of reasons: social media and AI leading to feeling disconnected, not going into the office, living far away from their families, not having connected neighbourhoods,\u201d said Adam \u201cSmiley\u201d Poswolsky, a keynote speaker and author who specialises in human connection and workplace culture.<\/p>\n
Poswolsky\u2019s career naturally grew out of his experience as an adult camp counselor at Camp Grounded from 2013 to 2017.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the idea of adult camp might initially produce an eyeroll. \u2018Why would an adult need camp? It\u2019s childlike; we\u2019re too old.\u2019 But it\u2019s the exact opposite,\u201d said Poswolsky, who met his now-wife, Ali, at Camp Grounded.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s the very thing many adults are missing the most \u2014 this chance to play and opportunity to connect with people that\u2019s not related to networking, your career, your title.\u201d<\/p>\n
In 2023, Melanie Kelly, 44, felt burnt out from her work running marketing and communications for a solar company. A former painting major, she signed up for a weeklong art-making camp at Anderson Ranch Arts Center in Snowmass Village, Colorado in the US, to see if she could rediscover the \u201cflow state\u201d she remembered from painting that she rarely experienced at work.<\/p>\n
Overnight, Kelly\u2019s days went from being spent answering emails and staring at her computer screen to creating tangible art and sharing workshop space with like-minded campers.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was always trying to be more productive in a work sense or seeking professional development aligned with my work,\u201d said Kelly. Art camp was the antidote to that tendency.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt feels like there\u2019s a bit of release in these types of moments or activities because you\u2019re allowing yourself to rest,\u201d she said. \u201cRest isn\u2019t sleep. The opposite of work isn\u2019t sleep; it\u2019s play.\u201d<\/p>\n
Outside of workshop time, the art programme at Anderson Ranch also organised meals and activities for attendees to make socialising as frictionless as possible. While many of these camps are attended by couples, groups of girlfriends or, in Aronov\u2019s company\u2019s case, coworkers, they also cater to solo campers looking to meet new people.<\/p>\n
At Michigan\u2019s Camp Forever Fun, founder Joel Reisig actively encourages single attendees with the promise of a safe, fun and connected experience.<\/p>\n
Reisig, a movie producer, had the idea to open an adult camp about a decade ago, after filming a movie about a group of girls attending horse camp. After shooting wrapped each day, the cast and crew relaxed by stargazing, petting horses and having dance parties.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought to myself, adults need a summer camp break every bit as much as kids do,\u201d Reisig said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is very hard to make new friends after college. You are generally interacting with a few neighbours and a couple of people you work with. A weekend at Camp Forever Fun is a time to relax, climb the rock wall, sit in a kayak, ride a horse and actually have real conversations and possibly friendships with other stressed-out adults.\u201d<\/p>\n
At Camp Forever Fun, it\u2019s 100 percent socially acceptable to introduce yourself to every single person at camp with zero fear of rejection. That\u2019s not something most adults are able to find at a bar or coffee shop \u2014 and certainly not from the comfort of their couch, where people are increasingly spending their time. (According to a 2024 study<\/a>, from 2003 to 2022, the average time Americans spend at home on a typical day has risen by one hour and 39 minutes.)<\/p>\n Alyx van der Vorm, 25, is a John Harvard Scholar who studied neuroscience and is the founder of social connection platform Clyx. She attributes rising rates of loneliness in part to how easy it\u2019s become to get what we need without ever leaving home.<\/p>\n \u201cSo many things have been made frictionless, from laundry to ordering food, that when it actually comes to making plans, it seems like a bit of a mountain,\u201d she says. \u201cAdd the fact that not everyone wants to be reaching out and initiating, and you suddenly have people spending a lot less time in person.\u201d<\/p>\n