Cell Phone use.

[Eamonn]

OK, I really don't want to resurrect the very long thread we had on bringing cell phones to camp.

There or only one or two Scouts in the Ship that don't have cell phones.

I may not understand why these are so important to these young people, but am willing to accept the fact that they are.

Most of these Sea Scouts, wouldn't leave the house without their phone and their parents are in most cases happy that their kid has the phone.

I have asked everyone adults and Scouts to turn their phones to vibrate when we are holding our meetings. The Scouts are good with this, the adults aren't. I think maybe they don't know how!!

My new problem is I don't think that I need to over hear long conversations, when we are driving.

A few weeks back we had a four hour drive and one female Sea Scout was on her phone for most of the time talking to her new boy friend. Her Mom was in the van and didn't seem to have a problem with this and the conversation was not anything that might be seen as bad. It just was never ending!!

I think that phone conversations should be private. The longest conversation I've had had with OJ on his cell phone is less than five minutes!

I'm aware that this problem is mine. I just think gabbing away on the phone while there are other people around is just rude.

To this end I have asked our Scouts to keep calls when we are driving as short as possible and if they need to "Talk" to someone wait until we stop.

Am I being an old stick in the mud?

Eamonn.

[evmori]

That's the big problem with cell phones and kids. They have very little consideration for anyone but themselves when they are on them. And they are on them all the time.

 

I agree, Eamonn, waiting till you stop to make a call is appropriate. And when the adults at meetings don't either turn their phones off or put them on vibrate they should be asked to leave. It's not that they don't know how. They just don't care. Selfish is getting real popular again! Plus the Scouts should turn their phones off while at the meeting. Chances of them getting a call they have to answer is very minimal.

 

Ed Mori

Troop 1

1 Peter 4:10

[evmori]

Double post.

 

sorry!(This message has been edited by evmori)

[scoutldr]

I've been full of radical proposals lately. Here's another one. I would like the DOT to mandate that cars be built so that cell phone reception is impossible while the motor is running. A simple $5 electronic gizmo in the ignition circuit should do the trick.

 

We also need an Etiquette Merit Badge...Eagle required.

 

Yes, your scouts should be taught that is rude to carry on a phone conversation while in the company of others. That's been rude since Alexander Graham Bell's day.

[funscout]

How about when people use the hands free models with ear phones, so when they suddenly start talking, you assume they are talking to you? If people are going to use these then they need to look away from any people who are near them. I can't tell you how many times someone has been looking right at me, so of course I assumed they were talking to me, but it turned out they had just received a phone call.

 

I, too, think it is rude to carry on a phone conversation in the presence of others. If your kids had company at home, wouldn't you teach them that it's rude to carry on a phone conversation while ignoring their company?

 

If I ever allow my kids to carry a cell phone, it will be for emergency purposes only. NOT for calling friends just to chat! I only turn on my cell phone when I am away from my kids. There is no other reason for people to absolutely have to get ahold of me immediately.

 

I agree with scoutldr that an etiquette merit badge is needed!

 

 

[Eamonn]

I think that maybe part of the problem is that there really are no rules of etiquette..

We were in a big hospital the other week. They have done away with paging and replaced it with giving everyone cell phones. The Doc who was seeing Her Who Must Be Obeyed, took 3 calls while he was with her.

I don't see my six year old phone as being cool. It lives in the car. I don't as a rule carry it. If anything, while I accept that it is or can be useful, I see it as a pain.

I don't have any need to download stuff to it, or watch the World Cup on it.

But kids are different. OJ keeps all his appointments on his and uses all sorts of the extras.

Some years back the school he attends banned cell phones and pagers. The reason given by the school board had something to do with dealing drugs. The rule still stands, but is not enforced, in fact there was a big article about which phones are the coolest in the school newspaper. Kind of a don't get caught rule?

I had strongly suggested that the Scouts who went to the 2005 Jambo not take phones, in keeping with what was in the guide book. The ever so friendly guys working in maintenance were kind enough to allow me to recharge my phone and camera batteries. So I left my phone in the cook box that we had in the fly we used for PLC meetings. The deal was it was there if anyone wanted to use it, but don't get silly!!

The Scouts were really good about it, some choose not to use it others just made quick calls and the parents didn't call with silly things.

Eamonn.

[CA_Scouter]

Let's not limit cell phone rudeness to kids... the adults are just as bad. I especially enjoy walking down the street and seeing what I think is some nut case talking to himself only to walk by and notice the earbud stuck in his ear.

 

Oh, and the louder the talker, the more important he/she must be, right?

 

And the bluetooth Mr. Spock thingy. Why not just put a 'I am a Nerd' neon sign on your back? Sheesh. And they keep wearing it even when they are off the phone!

 

We had a dinner party this weekend with the neighbors. Mrs Neighbor text messages her daughter about something, then not 5 minutes later, calls her to see if she got the message. Huh?? They must have had 3-4 calls in 20 minutes, about basic minutae.

 

Cell phones are a necessary evil for a lot of us, but with prudent and polite use, they aren't so bad.

 

 

 

[AvidSM]

The cell phone has become more like an electronic swiss army knife. It's a phone, watch, camera, pager, game device, calculator, message board, internet link, etc...

 

For that reason, it's hard to separate a boy from his phone - you could even say some are addicted to it.

 

I agree that conversations should be kept private. That incoming calls should not inturrupt meetings or activities. That they should not be talking on or playing with their phone instead of interacting with each other.

 

But I find it very hard to enforce an outright ban on cell phones at scouting functions. I think it makes more sense to tell the boys when and where their use would be appropriate, just as we would a swiss army knife.

 

Perhaps we should issue the boys a "cell phone totin chit" and take corners off when they break a rule?

[MaScout]

Well...I use my cell phone A LOT! But I agree -- manners need to be observed. I "don't work" -- I put in 35-60 hours per week as a volunteer, substitute teach, work on our farm, and help out in a local grain elevator as needed. I have 3 sons who are active in sports, drama, etc. I am almost never home. My cell is about the only way for people to reach me. Due to my husband's profession & liability issues, we don't have an answering machine at home. I utilize voice mail on my cell. I use "hands-free" when I am travelling. It is "understood" that if you are talking to me on my cell & the line suddenly goes dead, something came up -- I had to tend to the business of driving, my appointment is called, etc. I'll get back to you. My family & associates often use text messages to say "call me when you can -- not urgent". When I call someone's cell, I say, "This is...can you talk or do you need to call me back later?" If I am in an appointment, I don't answer the phone. If I am having a conversation with someone, I only answer it if it is my son who is in the military (and I only get to talk to every few months) or my aging & ailing parents. I always excuse myself first, however, and explain what the emergency is. I turn off the ringer. I keep calls short. When in campsites, it is definitely only for emergencies. I turn it OFF & check it a couple times a day "just in case"... We did have a Scout's home burn down while we were at camp one time...VERY glad we found out before we returned home! So...to ban them or not to ban them...that is the 6 million dollar question. It really depends on your situation...

[Hunt]

"I especially enjoy walking down the street and seeing what I think is some nut case talking to himself only to walk by and notice the earbud stuck in his ear."

 

I've experienced this many times, but recently I turned the corner. I saw a person talking and gesticulating, and assumed he was talking on a cell phone--but in fact, he was talking to himself.

 

[t158sm]

The problem with cell phones lies in a person's lack of humility. To interject yourself and your life upon other people via the constant use (abuse) of the cell phone is simple an attempt to validate one's self worth. In as much as society has changed the past several decades, people no longer value themselves by simple being who they are. Accessories make the person - heard that before. The more you have, the more "in touch" you are - the more important you make your psyche feel.

Just my ramblings - Take it or Leave it.

[Eamonn]

"I turned the corner. I saw a person talking and gesticulating, and assumed he was talking on a cell phone--but in fact, he was talking to himself."

That more than lightly was me preparing for the next quarterdeck meeting!!

Eamonn.

 

[MaScout]

Ahhh...then in the midst of this discussion, the following occured:

 

Last night my oldest son's friend stopped by to visit. (My son is sailing in the middle of the Sargasso Sea somewhere right now...friend stopped to visit the rest of us.) The lad is 19. While talking to me, his cell phone rang. He looked at who it was, & stopped talking to ask if it was all right if he answered his phone. I said yes, and walked away to give him some privacy. He asked the person on the other end of the line if he could call them back in a while. He was off in less than 15 seconds! YAY!

[nldscout]

Before I open court, I announce that people should turn off all cell phones. Seems like every person reaches for a phone to turn it off. Some look like I have asked them to cut off a hand or something.

[fgoodwin]

Ditch That Cell Phone in a Thunderstormhttp://www.healthday.com/view.cfm?id=533442

 

The devices may prove deadly in a lightning strike, some doctors suggest

 

By Amanda Gardner

HealthDay Reporter

 

FRIDAY, June 23 (HealthDay News) -- Citing the case of a 15-year-old girl struck by lightning while using her cell phone in a London park last year, some doctors are warning against the outdoor use of the devices during stormy weather.

 

The girl survived, but is confined to a wheelchair, has lost some hearing in the ear she was holding the phone to, and suffers a variety of physical, cognitive and emotional problems. She has no memory of the incident because she also suffered cardiac arrest at the time.

 

"This rare phenomenon is a public health issue, and education is necessary to highlight the risk of using mobile phones outdoors during stormy weather to prevent future fatal consequences from lightning-strike injuries related to mobile phones," three British doctors write in the June 24 issue of the British Medical Journal.

 

But other experts point to a number of variables that could have played a role in the accident.

 

"I am not aware of any research on a cell phone being a particular attractor of lightning," said John Drengenberg, manager of consumer affairs at Underwriters Laboratories Inc., in Northbrook, Ill. "There's nothing that would indicate they would attract lightning other than the fact that this girl with her cell phone and antenna would be something that would be the only thing that lightning would go to in that area."

 

Lightning is the second-leading weather-related source of fatalities in the United States, according to the National Lightning Safety Institute. National Weather Service data notes that 400 people are struck and approximately 67 are killed each year by lightning -- more deaths than caused by hurricanes or tornadoes. Only floods are more deadly.

 

Almost three-quarters of people who survive a lightning strike suffer lifelong, severe complications and disabilities. Lightning also causes about $5 billion of economic loss each year in the United States.

 

According to the authors of the letter, the high resistance of human skin means that if lightning strikes, it is conducted over the skin without entering the body, resulting in a low death-rate phenomenon known as "flashover." But conductive materials such as liquids or metallic objects -- i.e. cell phones -- disrupt the flashover and result in internal injury with greater death rates, according to the three authors from Northwick Park Hospital in Middlesex, England.

 

The letter's authors could not find any similar cases reported in the medical literature, although they did find three cases reported in newspapers in China, Korea and Malaysia. In all these cases, the person died after being struck by lightning while using a mobile phone outside during a storm, the authors said.

 

The Australian Lightning Protection Standard recommends that metallic objects, including cordless or mobile phones, not be used or even carried outdoors during a thunderstorm.

 

People can take other common-sense precautions during a lightning storm, Drengenberg said:

 

Get inside during a thunderstorm, and don't use a landline telephone. "If lightning strikes in the area, it will come through the telephone lines and could go through you," he warned. Also, avoid electrical appliances such as washing machines or dishwashers.

 

Don't take a shower or wash dishes because lightning can travel through water pipes.

 

Don't stand near an open window on a hot day when there's a lightning storm. As the heat leaves the house through the window, it becomes a conduit for lightning.

 

If you find yourself stuck outside, avoid wide-open spaces and don't stand under a tree. Thanks to the saline composition of your blood, you are a better conductor of electricity than the tree.

 

More information

 

The National Lightning Safety Institute has more on lightning safety: http://www.lightningsafety.com/

 

SOURCES: John Drengenberg, manager, consumer affairs, Underwriters Laboratories Inc., Northbrook, Ill.; June 24, 2006, British Medical Journal

 

Last Updated: June 23, 2006