…in the news today is a story about a female traveller who has gone missing – so far all we know is that she hasn’t been contactable for 4 days (obviously hope she’s okay)

Now don’t get me wrong it appears she has had constant communication with her family every few days, in my day a phone call home every 4-6 weeks would suffice, emails were still relatively new concept.

Again don’t get me wrong but the whole point of going away was to explore and find yourself etc, what’s happened to modern society ? Are we ever away when within a nano second everyone knows where you are on Facebook etc

I’m a prolific facebooker and enjoy putting stuff up when away – is 4 days enough time to cause  panic ? I don’t know ?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-essex-46463902

Now don’t get me wrong it appears she has had constant communication with her family every few days, in my day a phone call home every 4-6 weeks would suffice, emails were still relatively new concept.

But even travelling solo somebody would probably know where you were, in this context she was working on the island so probably has an employer or friends out there so kust like being at home somebody would spot you.
My folks are not on social media and we go a week or so sometimes without chatting but if I went off grid somebody I know would probably spot it

I thought the same thing reading this story. My wife and I went backpacking between 2000 and 2001 and would use an internet cafe every few weeks to mail home and tell family we were still alive. Saying that if we had a web enabled mobile in our pocket and social media like todays youth have we’d probably have been in touch slightly more with freinds if not family.

Similar tale…

A female friend of mine started seeing a male friend of mine (they met independently, amazingly). The male was/is a soldier. Shortly after their romance blossomed, he went off on active duty. One day, I had a message from her saying, “He doesn’t love me any more! I haven’t heard from him for two days!” I mentioned that perhaps, just perhaps, he might be busy. Under rocket attack, maybe. You know, war zone sort of stuff, but to no avail.

She typed the dumping email, hit send and at the exact same time, a message hit her inbox saying, “Sorry I’ve been out of contact for a bit, things got very hot here, what with all the rocket attacks and all!”. D’oh!

From my own experience, when I was growing up, my father was off in hot places flying and we’d be lucky to get a letter once a month, let alone a phone call, email or something as far fetched as Skype! Nowadays, when I’m away, I get to see and speak to my kids almost every day. Times change, and they change fast!

Do you have any children currently out of the country who have not contacted you for 4 or six weeks ?

I did a fair bit of roaming and rather selfishly very rarely called home, I knew plenty of mates who regularly called home from foreign parts, I Only ever did if it was cheap or I felt like bragging about how much of a good time I was having.

She typed the dumping email, hit send and at the exact same time, a message hit her inbox saying, “Sorry I’ve been out of contact for a bit, things got very hot here, what with all the rocket attacks and all!”. D’oh!

Sounds like he got a lucky escape.

Ps I never did find myself.

To my mind, cause for concern would be a change in behaviour. Not calling for four days after previously calling three times a day would be a different situation from if she normally called once a week. Perhaps.

Again don’t get me wrong but the whole point of going away was to explore and find yourself etc, what’s happened to modern society ? Are we ever away when within a nano second everyone knows where you are on Facebook etc

What an odd line of reasoning.

The reason people didn’t check in all the time in the good old days was because we couldn’t. I’m sure our parents worried just as much. People check in now because they can, not because we are morally inferior FFS.

Of course we’re ‘away’ when we’re away. So what if we like to keep in touch with our friends? What is so wrong with that? Is it wrong to want to share your life with people?

I’d regularly disappear for a month, with postcards arriving after I’d returned. For me it was a major part of travelling on your own.

I’m a prolific facebooker and enjoy putting stuff up when away – is 4 days enough time to cause panic ? I don’t know ?

Probably. If it’s out of character / anomalous behaviour it should trigger a response from people who care through to people who can do something about it.

Agreed about the olden days but then the logical conclusion of this is Cook’s voyages.

The reason people didn’t check in all the time in the good old days was because we couldn’t. I’m sure our parents worried just as much. People check in now because they can, not because we are morally inferior FFS.

I bet they didn’t worry as much – media was less in your face back then so no scaremongering, who said anything about being morally inferior ?

I also didn’t say there was anything wrong with sharing your life with people…maybe you should reread my original post…

When we were travelling around NZ oooo 12 years ago, we would probably nip to an internet cafe every week or so to drop out a group email.
I think the only time we called home was from my Uncles in Auckland at Christmas.

My brother has just got back from NZ and he reckoned that WiFi and internet in general was a bit like here in the 90s still, which is probably a bit unfair but you take his point.

When were were in Europe we had a WAP enabled internet sort of smart-ish phone (with Full Qwerty keyboard) which was handier.

No one panicked that we hadn’t checked in for over a week when we were in the middle of nowhere but I guess things are a bit different now.

A female friend of mine started seeing a male friend of mine (they met independently, amazingly).

Now don’t get me wrong it appears she has had constant communication with her family every few days, in my day a phone call home every 4-6 weeks would suffice, emails were still relatively new concept.

Not sure what’s going on with the forum quote box lads..

But even not that long ago I was off sailing the Med with a mate and two girls (not my wife) and we were out of commas for weeks on end.. mostly by choice and mostly because the places we moored up in didn’t even have a phone nearby.

I had to call back home in a slightly anxious manner when I stopped off in a remote fishing village in Naxos where a TV was playing clips of B52’s dropping bombs, apparently the Greeks had decided the Gulf War was going to end up this way so was then issuing some warnings..
My call home was “WTF is happening” to be told nothing much and it’s in Iraq…

I did shit myself, has to be said.

Out of commas!? How did you survive?

Same way I always do🤣

dogbone

I’d regularly disappear for a month, with postcards arriving after I’d returned. For me it was a major part of travelling on your own.

buying postcards? 😆

Eddie, never introduced them. I thought he was gay…! Oops.

“Sounds like he got a lucky escape”

We might say he dodged a bullet. 😀

I bet they didn’t worry as much – media was less in your face back then so no scaremongering, who said anything about being morally inferior ?

It was all over your post, at least it looked like it. When you say stuff like this, it’s implied:

what’s happened to modern society ?

And I bet they did worry just as much.

The reason people didn’t check in all the time in the good old days was because we couldn’t. I’m sure our parents worried just as much. People check in now because they can, not because we are morally inferior FFS.

This – I went travelling for three months in 1990 and kept in touch by postcard and called them on my birthday. If email, Facebook, blogging etc had been a thing (or even reasonably priced phone calls) I would have definitely had much more contact with them. I still have the cards I sent now safely tucked away at home.

Eddie, never introduced them. I thought he was gay…! Oops.

I’m starting to wonder if that is why my mates never introduce me to women. Or men for that matter.

Reading the story it seems some of the panic comes from the fact it was her birthday.

But, as other have said, when I went travelling 2000 into 2001 it was a weekly phone call home if they were lucky, I didn’t have a mobile and whilst I had an e-mail address, my parents didn’t. Actually when I was actually doing the travelling bit not the hanging around the city working I’d go 3/4 weeks without contact.

Hope girl is safe.

But even travelling solo somebody would probably know where you were

When my mate and I went travelling in the early 90’s sometimes we didnt where we were four days at a time!!