For $2300, you can send your kids to a 10 day session designed to improve their social media skills.
Offered in London, Melbourne and here in California, the program includes instruction in lighting and camera work, writing, blogging, self-promotion, marketing, etc.
“Every kid’s dream is to be a Youtube star”, according to Michael Buckley, host of the camp in Claremont, Ca.
There is no doubt that a select few teens have achieved fame and fortune with a highly successful social media account.
Followers in the millions will generate advertising revenue in the area of 6 figures, an income to be taken seriously.
That kind of popularity doesn’t seem to follow a formula, there is no telling what will attract and sustain viewers. It’s a bit of random magic. Or is it ?
I wasn’t surprised to hear of this version of summer camp. Most traditional camps are still designed to allow our youth to unplug for a few weeks.
My family had our own version of affordable summer camp.
Send the kids out in the morning to play in the yards, woods and streams nearby and have them return, unharmed, before the street lamps were lit.
It was a different time, a different kind of adventure, and it seemed to work.
We survived.
And of course, Allan Sherman’s 1963 classic camp refrain.
vanbytheriver 
Haven’t heard that one in a few decades…
I know, but it’s the first thing I thought of when I read this news story today. Made me smile.
Made me smile too 🙂
Great song, It always makes me laugh!
As for the Social Media Camps, I think my daughter can survive the summer without attending one! 🙂
Me, too. Interesting note that folks are coming from all over to attend this particular camp, a few teens saved up for years and traveled a thousand miles ???
Unbelieveable!!!
It’s been around a few years…I wonder if there are any follow-up success stories ??
Would be interesting to know if anyone became successful because of going to one of their camps. 🙂
I think so, Judy. Nice to see you again. I have to go back to your site, and find out why I keep losing you ???
I don’t know what happened as I lost a lot of people, but it is lovely to find you again too Van 🙂
My son has a YouTube channel and honestly, I don’t understand most of it, but his younger siblings love it. Moo is subscribed to several YouTubers, and at times, it seems like those are her shows. She’ll actually say things like, “Can we eat early or can I eat in my room? There’s a new ______ episode at 8.”
I’m not surprised by this camp either and I’m sure it’s a dream for some. I agree, there’s a bit of magic involved in gaining a large following.
My summer camp experience was weeks or months spent on the lake with my grandparents. Later, there would be dance camp, church camp, art camp, study abroad, and um WORK — but I’m pretty sure outdoors was the best part of my summers. I have no regrets about running amok 🙂
I only had girl scout camp, which was done in tents, very rustic…and I loved it all ! I still remember my father getting us the mess kits at the Army Navy Store, and showing us how to roll a proper sleeping bag !! Running amok…the very best !
😀
I think we went to the same camp. That song always makes me laugh even when I hear the original beautiful piece of classical music written by Ponicelli called the Dance of the Hours.
I didn’t know the name of the classic piece. Thanks, B. And yes, many of us had that kind of summer camp.
Social Media summer camp? OMG! It almost sounds like a joke. Talk about kids missing out on childhood and having ulcers by age 18. Poor things. I was raised like you, Van. Out the door after breakfast and home when the dinner bell rang.
You’re so right about the pressure, as if they needed more. I remember your stories of being dropped off at the woods, D. So many lessons in self-reliance (and survival ). And all that stuff…fed the imagination of a fantasy author.
I hope the kids today grow up with the great memories of childhood that we had as free-range kids.
The formula still works, as long as they still want to go outside once in a while, D.
I wonder if that kind of course actually appeals to kids. My kids love YouTube but the way they create for YouTube is they spend days making movies, including creating props and costumes, and then they edit and sometimes post the final product on YouTube (on my account). I think half the fun for them is the challenge of figuring out the technology themselves. They use google and YouTube tutorials to figure out what they need to do to achieve the post-production or editing effect they are after. I think my kids would find a course anathema for that reason – its being didactic removes the fun of solving the puzzle. My kids don’t attend summer camps anyway since I don’t work during the summer break but I certainly would not be shelling out on this if I did need summer camp for childcare.
Self discovery and solving those challenges…must be a huge part of the joy in it for them, Laura. You are on to something with this message. Thanks.
I had your Same version of day camp! ♡
Diana xo
Maybe one day, the devices will be less popular. But looking around lately, I have my doubts, D. Glad you can relate.
Interesting concept for a tidy price! My kids had the “get outside and blow the stink off of you” type of summer “camp”… Ha!
Ha ha…my mom used that expression all the time. And we did bathe !
Doesn’t matter… Nothing like the Great Outdoors as an oder moderator!
😳
And I gre up with that song. Love it!
If I remember right, his comedy album won all sorts of awards that year. Thanks, Dweezer.
I experienced the old-fashioned summer camps and I am glad that so did my kids too!
No high-tech summer camp for your kids, Erika. Wise choice. Those traditional camps are here to stay, we may need them even more now !
… I’m speechless. I had no idea this was a thing.
Neither did I, Maggie. Saw a brief news clip this a.m. and looked it up…it’s been around for a while now. The last session in California had 150 campers !!
Well there’s something new……..
I guess it was bound to happen…our modern times. Thanks, C.
Lol…loved that song. I saw this on the news and just shook my head. I thought the same thing you did. There didn’t seem to be a room full of kids in this camp based on what I saw. But one is too many. Crazy stuff..:)
Crazy, for sure, and a little sad. Thanks, George.
There’s really nothing to say about this camp. So typical.
I never went to camp as a kid, except for Girl Scouts over weekends in Spring and Fall. But I spent my summer outside, either around our house or up north near my grandparent’s cottage. Oh, the bliss. I’d gladly give up being a YouTube star for those memories.
I drove through my childhood neighborhood on a sunny summer day a while back…there was no evidence of “life outside”…such a different world, Julie. Thanks.
We had summer camp , too. It was called “life on the farm.” And was free! Work from sunup to sundown,all you could eat, swimming in the stock pond at day’s end, and horseback riding on Sundays.
Those are the kind of summer memories to cherish, even with all the work. Thanks, Linda.
Technology is great, but I’m so glad I grew up chasing lightening bugs and playing hide-n-seek during summer vacation. 🙂
I hear you, Tonya. Thanks.
Wow interesting camp
Isn’t it though ??? Times have changed, Lynn.
Teach coding seems like a school subject…summer is for rooms without a roof…device free 🤓☀️😎
Well said, Hedy, rooms without a roof. Thanks.
I heard it
It’s a line from Pharrell William’s song Happy https://g.co/kgs/APtHiH 😀❤️
What? Fresh air? Running around…uncontrived exercise…in nature?! How unsophisticated.
Such a radical idea. Thanks, D.
We must have gone to the same camp Van! LOL!!! Only mine was in a backyard in Georgia! I loved this!
Glad you could relate. Thanks, G.
Wow, that sounds like some fancy camp. I think you and I went to the same summer camp Van, lol. ❤
So many of us went to that camp, Deb. Thanks.
🙂 🙂
They used to play that every Saturday on the radio during Children’s Hour.. plus 4 wheels on my wagon.. and Pink Toothbrush and a Blue Toothbrush ooh and The Ugly Bug Ball.. do you see what you have started……. I cannot imagine the bank loan required to send three kids or more off to this summer camp… I still think the old fashioned throw you out and expect you back for food approach taught you more about life.. great post Van.. hugs xx
Ha ha…sorry (or not?) to get you going on that stuff, Sally. Thanks for sharing, and I think you’re right about the lessons learned.
Yes, that was the kind of Summer Camp I went to as well Van.. We would only come back when we were hungry.. and often have a jam sandwich and be out on our way again.. Climbing trees, jumping streams, helping the farmer haymake.. building dens, and playing games made from our own imagination..
Yes a different era.. Too bad Fresh Air has gone out of fashion, and the world has become so less friendlier .. ❤ Great Post Van..
Smiling at your description, you nailed it, Sue. Not sure where we were having lunch, sometimes we ate out of friend’s gardens,just so we didn’t have to go home. Food wasn’t real important to us during summer vacation. Thanks for sharing.
Happy childhood days when we were outside. Not always as happy indoors.. xxx
True enough, that.
❤
I like your camp idea much better!!😃 The one I had as a child and my son’s summers are the same…although it now seems to involve a lot of taxi- service from myself to meet up with friends!! The camp seems a lot of money on matters I’m sure most youngsters know a lot more about than the teachers!😃😀
I’m sure they could teach us adults quite a bit, never thought of that, Annika. Thanks.
. !
!!! Thanks.