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Writer's picturevijayaraghavan s

Technology-A Friend or a Foe to Seafarers-Communication

Updated: May 15, 2020


Dear All,

Technology is something which has slowly but steady crept into all human lives where ever they live in this planet. It does not ask permission and slowly becomes more and more important gradually until a point where it becomes indispensable and even to a greater point of ruling us!


Seafarers and shipping are no exceptions and technology has changed a lot in shipping and for seafarers.

Here we discuss few ways where technology has changed a lot of how things get done for seafarers onboard and Ashore:

1) Communication:Communication improvements can be considered one the biggest breakthroughs in the modern times which has effected the way the shipping was conducted.Both affordability and quality have both improved many times during the last 10 to 15 years at least if not before.

I still remember,phone calls were prohibitively expensive leave alone from the ships but from ashore in a foreign country during initial stages of my career.

With the advent of the internet ,the communication cost have almost become negligible compared to the earlier costs.The communication between Ship and shore office has also increased many folds ,now that the whole ship is in whatsapp communication with staff in office continuously.

This has impacted life onboard board in both Positive and negative aspects

Positive:

a) Better communication with friend and relatives

b) It makes problem solving easy with better coordination between ship and shore superintendents-Ship staff share photos and videos for better description of the situation

c) decision making becomes faster

Negative:

a) It has killed social life on board

b) Seafarers go into depression

c) Distractions have increased causing serious accidents

In the second part to this post we shall discuss yet another technology disruption which has changed the shipping in a big way!

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