Cavaliers Cell Phone Question

[Geoff]

I was not referring to your opinion on cell phones. I was referring to the way you deliver your opinions and the way you come across.

[PC]

Wow! Some of you folks need to lighten up. But to answer the original question (our son will be on his third tour with Cavies next summer), there are a lot of reasons why cell phones - and especially the now omnipresent smart phones - become huge distractions and problems anytime during the season, even pre-tour when a lot of first-time corps parents would be most anxious to find out how their kid is doing. We were just as anxious the first year but we learned that no news was mostly good news.

1. First and most obvious, instead of making friends, developing new relationships and/or just learning a lot of important new lessons about how to learn to adapt and fit in when immersed in a very stressful environment amid a sea of mostly strangers, kids with their phones tune out and just communicate with their same old cell phone/facebook/twitter/whatever circle and ignore the most important people and things that are going on in the real world around them.

2. Worse yet, the real people around them just become convenient gossip and complaint fodder for the entertainment of their essentially useless non-present virtual pals, a very counterproductive behavior that tends to compound problems.

3. And then there is the additional distraction from productive attention and healthy socialization that is inevitable, especially among young males suddenly without any regular contact with females their own age, with the "smart" phones' abilities to easily tap a world-wide ocean of porn, more or less continuously. The allure of such stuff usually isn't as obvious to us parents as it is glaringly apparent to our kids.

Plenty of the Cavies kids will cheat and turn in dummy phones and keep their real phones stashed, but the rule at least makes their use furtive and infrequent, and makes the social atmosphere, especially in their off time, a heck of a lot more healthy than what prevails around the other corps that do nothing to deter cell-phone obsession.

Edited September 17, 2013 by PC

[Pioneer Dad]

Wow! Some of you folks need to lighten up. But to answer the original question (our son will be on his third tour with Cavies next summer), there are a lot of reasons why cell phones - and especially the now omnipresent smart phones - become huge distractions and problems anytime during the season, even pre-tour when a lot of first-time corps parents would be most anxious to find out how their kid is doing. We were just as anxious the first year but we learned that no news was mostly good news.

1. First and most obvious, instead of making friends, developing new relationships and/or just learning a lot of important new lessons about how to learn to adapt and fit in when immersed in a very stressful environment amid a sea of mostly strangers, kids with their phones tune out and just communicate with their same old cell phone/facebook/twitter/whatever circle and ignore the most important people and things that are going on in the real world around them.

2. Worse yet, the real people around them just become convenient gossip and complaint fodder for the entertainment of their essentially useless non-present virtual pals, a very counterproductive behavior that tends to compound problems.

3. And then there is the additional distraction from productive attention and healthy socialization that is inevitable, especially among young males suddenly without any regular contact with females their own age, with the "smart" phones' abilities to easily tap a world-wide ocean of porn, more or less continuously. The allure of such stuff usually isn't as obvious to us parents as it is glaringly apparent to our kids.

Plenty of the Cavies kids will cheat and turn in dummy phones and keep their real phones stashed, but the rule at least makes their use furtive and infrequent, and makes the social atmosphere, especially in their off time, a heck of a lot more healthy that what prevails around the other corps that do nothing to deter cell-phone obsession.

Thanks for the response. This is great information and I am glad to hear from a current parent. This has been helpful and we would want nothing more than for our son to follow his dream and be a Cavalier!

[Stu]

I was not referring to your opinion on cell phones. I was referring to the way you deliver your opinions and the way you come across.

a) I completely avoid this type of banter at 'parties' because it is not a proper venue for these types of discussions; b) This is not a 'party', it is a website designed to post opinions, respectfully yes, but still it is a site to post opinions; and c) When engaging in opinion discussions, such as those on this site, I am not going to be politically correct but present opinion in a straight forward manner (which is also why I find the green-red popularity ratings on this site rather juvenile).

[Stu]

... Plenty of the Cavies kids will cheat and turn in dummy phones and keep their real phones stashed...

What a great honorable personal-accountability system to live by and teach to our youth as being acceptable in the culture of today. There ya go P Dad, your fear that your child will not have a cell phone while out on the road with the Cavaliers is now a non-issue.

[corpsband]

Plenty Most of the Cavies kids will cheat and turn in dummy phones and keep their real phones stashed,

FTFY

, and makes the social atmosphere, especially in their off time, a heck of a lot more healthy that what prevails around the other corps that do nothing to deter cell-phone obsession.

So....every corps that allows cell phones on tour have an un-healthy social atmosphere?

IMO encouraging members to smuggle their cell phones on tour and sneak around using them after shows is a far more problematic environment than setting reasonable limits on their usage.

But hey -- that's just my 2 cents.

[actucker]

Another bit of info that I've heard from people who have marched was that the staff don't want current members to be concerned with scores, recaps, posts on DCP, etc. They want their perception of the show to be based on their progress and their own standards rather than someone else's opinion. I'm sure that is a concern that arose after the advent of the rule, considering that the first cell phones didn't really give you access to that information, but I think its a valid concern.

(Not directed at the parent who asked the question): The fact is, we can agree or not agree, but the Cavaliers have a right to run their organization however they see fit. Taking sarcastic stabs at them "underachieving" because you disagree with them is a pretty juvenile thing to do. If you don't like the policy, don't march there or ask your kids to march there.

Personally, I think kids are too reliant on technology and virtual communication these days. Not using a cell phone on tour (I had one, but it almost never came out of my bag or got turned on) was a fantastic experience for me. I did a lot of growing up that summer, learning how to stand on my own two feet and handle my own issues. If I were a parent sending a kid on tour, I'm not sure I wouldn't take their phone from them when they left for that same reason.

[Stu]

... the Cavaliers have a right to run their organization however they see fit.

... Personally, I think kids are too reliant on technology and virtual communication these days. Not using a cell phone on tour (I had one, but it almost never came out of my bag or got turned on) was a fantastic experience for me. I did a lot of growing up that summer, learning how to stand on my own two feet and handle my own issues. If I were a parent sending a kid on tour, I'm not sure I wouldn't take their phone from them when they left for that same reason.

I agree 100% with this posting by actucker; and is an example as to why I am willing to get hit with all of those dumb red negatives for my position!!!

[Slingerland]

If a member needs to contact family members because of any emergency situation or to respond to a parents' call, the tour management and staff have their phones, and the kids know they can ask to use them.

A friend's kid marched there this summer, and the corps has a families-only Facebook page they use for posting regular updates (several times a day) and photos of rehearsals, etc., so even though theirs wasn't calling home every week, they still saw him regularly all summer, which seemed to help his mom get over her separation anxiety.

[charlie1223]

Plenty of the Cavies kids will cheat and turn in dummy phones and keep their real phones stashed, but the rule at least makes their use furtive and infrequent, and makes the social atmosphere, especially in their off time, a heck of a lot more healthy that what prevails around the other corps that do nothing to deter cell-phone obsession.

You must obviously have a extensive study on corps member cell phone usage and the resulting atmosphere that a cellphone or cellphone-free environment has on the social atmosphere in a world class drum corps.

I'm guessing you really don't have any idea what the social atmosphere is like at the Cavaliers or any other World Class Corps.

Edited September 16, 2013 by charlie1223