One of the things that we take for granted and have for the past 10 years or so is cell phone communication.

I notice at work that when we go out of a cell phone coverage that people tend to get a little upset be cause they have grown to depend on it.

It wasn't all that long ago when every dock we went to had a phone booth and when we tied up there would be a couple of guys headed straight to it to call home and check up on things. Actually these guys were the minority. Most guys didn't call home at the docks, at least too often.

Enter the cell phone. At first they were huge, bulky expensive things that were mounted in cars. This was followed by a portable unit that was about the size of an old army field phone. They were also as expensive as hell to run.

It didn't take long for the rates to drop and the size of the units to shrink to the point where anyone could afford one and keep it in their shirt pocket.

Nowadays we have instant communication at our fingertips.

It's actually a pretty good deal when you think about it, but I suppose there are a few drawbacks. People have grown dependent on them. It seems like they are always calling someone that they never used to call and that whatever it is they are yakking about is just so incredibly important.

It always makes me wonder what they did in the age before cellular communication, or at least what the younger guys did.

Back when I first got into the business we actually had two seperate lives, an at sea life and an ashore life. Work was work and time off was when relationships and business were attended to.

Not anymore. These days all sorts of business that was taken care of ashore seems to be taken care of out here on the fly.
I regularly see guys changing car insurance policies and scheduling medical appointments all the time out here. I suppose that is actually a pretty good thing. 

They call their wives and find out what their kids are up to and things. I suppose that makes it easier to be a good father when you can get in touch with the kids often. You can always say "Wait until I get home!" 

Beats having the wife say, "Wait until you father gets home."

I suppose the advantages of having cellular communication beat the drawbacks but I see that it is also one thing we seem to have grown pretty dependent on. Dependency on things is not really a good thing.




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