Modo Avión: 51 Madrid teenagers switch off their mobiles to reconnect with real life

No mobile phones, social media or screens. Only nature, time together and outdoor activities. This is how the first edition of Campamento Modo Avión unfolds, an innovative proposal from the Comunidad de Madrid in which 51 adolescents aged between 12 and 16 face an increasingly urgent challenge: learning to live without depending on technology.

For ten days, from 6 to 15 July, the participants live together at Finca El Encín, a natural setting managed by IMIDRA in Alcalá de Henares. There, without access to electronic devices, they take part in a programme designed to encourage digital disconnection and a return to healthy habits. Fourteen of the attendees have just completed psychological treatment for problematic technology use.

The camp includes everything from cooking workshops using locally sourced products to sports activities, group games, countryside walks, emotional-intelligence sessions and community-building activities. Training is also given by the regional public Servicio de Atención en Adicciones Tecnológicas (SAAT), addressing topics such as digital identity and time management on social networks.

The regional ministers Ana Dávila (Family, Youth and Social Affairs) and Carlos Novillo (Environment, Agriculture and the Interior) visited the camp this Thursday to see first-hand how this pioneering experience is developing. “We are offering them something that cannot be downloaded: freedom, real time and human contact,” Dávila said. Novillo, meanwhile, stressed the value of the rural environment as an active part of the educational process: “Here they learn not only to disconnect from their mobile phone, but to reconnect with the environment, the group and themselves.”

Campamento Modo Avión is part of the summer campaign organised by the Dirección General de Juventud, which this year has increased its offer to 37 camps and 1,135 places. But among all the options—water sports, circus, multi-adventure or volunteering—this quiet, wifi-free proposal has become one of the most symbolic. Because in a world saturated with notifications, learning to disconnect is no longer a luxury, but an urgent necessity.