I have a story to tell. I enlisted in the USAF in 1975 with a guaranteed job called Telecommunications Systems Control. When I got out of the USAF, I hired on with ITT U.S. Transmission Systems, then GTE Sprint, then MCI which eventually was bought out and became Verizon Business that I retired from. My 40 year career in telecommunications gave proof there is no such thing as a great god Electron. I have a smart phone that I completely ignore. I have email that I completely ignore. In my jobs I have listened to thousands of telephone calls especially in the night shift.
I have a shovel in the garage that I never think of until I need that tool. A cellphone is just a tool.
It is true that, (i)t’s kind of scary that people have become so dependent on their phones..., but it is all up to each person.
On 9/11, I was on several phone calls at once, for over 24 hours at a time. I have listened to a phone ringing off the hook for various reasons. It's not magic.
Well, I enjoy the fancy smart phones for what they can do. But there are times when I just want to travel light and have a little insurance in case something happens. One of these little flip phones will fit nicely in my travel vest and provide all I need on some of my excursions.
I had a similar job classification in a different branch of the service about the time you served. For a period of time, I was mostly a patch cord jockey. During late night shifts we got bored and would do “QC” checks. Like clock work a military officer would use military comms to talk with his his wife back in the states and tell her how much he loved her. After hanging up, he would call his mistress in a nearby country and gave her the same line of BS. We never did anything about it, except have a good laugh....