CAMDEN — Electra Bennett, 17, from Camden, got a life lesson she didn't expect last year when her parents took her phone away for four months to focus on studying and improve her grades.

"I was so used to the phone and addicted to it, and going to boarding school, I was around people who were always on their phone, as well," she said. "I focused on my studies and work, which is one way I got over it, initially."

Electra eventually got her phone back, but the dissonance of seeing what life was like without the internet spurred her to create the "Look Up And Wave" challenge, inviting people to put down their phones for one day and focus on genuine human connection and engage in small acts of kindness.

She hosted the in-person challenge in front of French and Brawn in Camden on Saturday, August 16, from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., with coffee, doughnuts, and a raffle jar, encouraging people to unplug from their digital devices and reconnect with their communities through in-person interactions.

"Lots of people stopped by and we raised more than $300 in a raffle, which we're donating to a charity called Cybersmile," she said.

The Cybersmile Foundation's mission is to, "create community where everyone feels free to express themselves" and "is committed to digital well-being and tackling all forms of bullying and abuse online."

To date with her GoFundMe campaign, the challenge has raised $3,150 to give to the nonprofit.

"People, especially the older generation, donated the most and wanted to stop by and talk about their own experiences," she said. "They told me about life before social media and how it has changed society and how they'd really like to see it go back to how it was."

The waving part of the challenge came from an experience she remembered as a young child in Camden, as her parents' car passed by a resident named Kermit Ingraham, a beloved Camden resident who would sit outside on Washington Street and wave at every person who passed by. You might recall him from a story Penobscot Bay Pilot ran about Ingraham when the paper initially launched in 2012.

"When we were younger, my brothers and I would open the window and wave back at him; this is something I really remembered from my childhood," she said. "A lot of locals remembered him."

"It’s important to say that I'm not anti-technology — it’s more about the pro-connection side of it," she explained.

Since a cell phone can absorb the user's complete attention to the point of zero situational awareness, as most of us observe daily, her challenge is subtle, but it packs a point.

As her press release stated: "Whether it’s a smile to a passerby, holding a door for a stranger, or simply enjoying a screen-free conversation, the mission is simple: Be present. Be kind. Be the change."

With 73% of Gen-Z young adults reporting feeling more lonely than any other age group, Electra's challenge is especially timely.

Being present is the key. Looking up and around, observing the social cues right in front of you, being proactively engaged—even with strangers—are the little gestures that foster that social connection that make people feel that they belong in a community.

Hail To The Rad Kids is an ongoing feature highlighting teens in the Midcoast with a special talent.

Kay Stephens can be reached at news@penbaypilot.com