The Pros and Cons of Cell Phones for Preppers

I am old enough to have lived before cell phones. When I was child we lived in a home with a wall-mounted phone with a hand crank and a party line.  Now I am sure very few of you even know what a party line was.  It was where several families shared a phone line.  The phone would give a distinctive ring for each family and you would answer your phone.  The problem was that anyone else on the party line could pick up and listen in.  Kind of like now, except it is the government listening in.

Today we are in a different world and it is changing fast and I am not entirely sure it is for the better.  Granted in the past it was a bit harder to get hold of someone, no instant communication or texting.  Today everyone including me has one of these little leashes in our pockets.  Many of us spend our life tied to electronic devices.

The question is, are they good or bad for preppers.  Just this morning I asked my wife for the number of someone she call regularly and her answer was check my cell phone.  No one today remembers phone numbers or writes them down.  In the past, either you remembered the numbers you called on a regular basis or you wrote them down and carried a little black book.

The advantages of cell phones for a prepper are

• Instant communication from almost anywhere.

• Convenience, you almost always have one with you, no looking for pay phones.

• Ability to send pictures and texting.

• Emergency, can call for help.

• Access to the internet and e-mail

• Access to GPS and maps

The disadvantages of a cell phone

• The government can listen in to your conversations, of course this applies to almost any phone today.

• Your cell phone can be used to track your location.

• Your cell phone can be used by the government or hackers to listen to your conversations even when turned off.  If you want to have a conversation and be sure no one is listen in, leave the phone at home or at least take the battery out.

• You develop a dependence on the phone to remember your phone numbers, memorize the important phone numbers in your life, you may not always have a cell phone available.

• You begin to develop a dependence on instant communication and get use to the idea of someone having a leash on you.

• The cell phone industry will continue to develop new ideas to make people become dependent on them.  In the young people today it has become almost an addiction.

• The government can shut of your phone system anytime it wants.

• Possible health affects, for example possible brain tumors.

• A large time waster for many people, playing games and social media.

Now I am not saying that you should get rid of your cell phones, but don’t let your children or even yourself become dependent on them to where it becomes hard to function without them.

Howard

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