GPS technology is making us all stupid

I miss visiting the AAA offices for maps.

They're a godsend for people like me who have no sense of direction. I don't know how you elders got by with paper maps.

Just fine, R2. After a few silly wrong turns with the GPS my son gave me, I gave up. I broke out the maps and was glad I didn't toss them.

I look on Google street for landmarks. Visual learner. That is helpful.

R2, I used to carry a yellow pages and a county map in my car under the passenger seat.

We used to learn how streets were laid out (the X of the city), so that we could find any location with only an address. I actually taught a bunch of girls in my freshman dorm to do this the first week of college. When I got my driver's license at 17, my father sat me down with a county map and pointed out all the areas I was allowed to go and the areas that I was UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCES to go.

I kept a little compass in my car too (like the little globe in water).

I have a GPS but prefer to use Goggle maps to plot my route and use GPS as a back up. I've only become lost twice using maps and that was because of construction.

I used to use maps. but today I can no longer SEE them.

The younger generation who never experienced life before GPS technology are really screwed. Back when I relied on maps, asking directions from strangers, jjotting down directions & drawing maps with routes and landmarks forced me to to constantly pay attention to my surroundings and helped me quickly memorize routes and areas quickly. Sure I would get lost sometimes but this also helped me learn and memorize streets and areas.

R5, I like the compass idea. My new car has a directional on the readout, but it would have come in handy when I was younger. Your dad seems like he was a cool guy.

I keep those maps in the car, too, but always check out the google map directions first. I write them out, in large block letters, and post them on the dashboard. Haven't been lost in years.

I don't need either. Maps or tech. I have an uncanny sense of direction.

L.A. is way too big to memorize, and I drive for Uber. I need my GPS!

And yet, a professional taxi drive in LA managed to do it for fucking decades without GPS.

I am becoming convinced smartphones are fucking up an entire generation (18-25 year olds). I teach college students: even in the past 5 or so years, the increase in smartphone addiction I've witnessed is frightening. Kids are glued to their phones every second of the day. They sleep with their phones in their beds.

Eh....my husband never paid attention to landmarks or surroundings before GPS. Now he doesn’t pay attention to the GPS, either

The younger generation who never lived in a world without GPS, smart phones, google and social media are truly fucked. Socially inept and completely unable to use their brains for anything.

Does anyone actually use GPS repeatedly for the same location? if so, yeah, they're idiots.

"And yet, a professional taxi drive in LA managed to do it for fucking decades without GPS."

Hooray for them.

And self-driving cars are going to make people smarter? Lol

Maybe best not to get outraged about non-issues like this.

What kills me about young people & smartphones is that they don’t know how to do a search for helpful information. They’re all about apps, and if it’s not on an app, they’re clueless. “How was I supposed to know there’s a date that I have to meet in order to register to vote?”

How about you do a search with your phone. “Voting in xx state”?

Don't get me started r19

I’m sort of like you R10. I can’t really read maps but I can point myself in a direction and find where I want to go generally. Often the gps messes me up when I’m riding in a car and I often turn it off and just direct via the ways I know already.

I have actually worried about this dependence on smart tech for a while. It’s great when we have but what about when we don’t?

I’m in my late thirties and the amount of practical things that were already discontinued by the time I hit high school is staggering to me. I never had Shop Class or Home Ec even and this was the mid nineties.

One of my cars had “map lights” and everyone had a side pocket for maps in their car.

I would like to start a private school called “Use Your Friggin Head” and franchise it.

I moved to miami last year after living in NYC for 13 years. I relied solely on public transportation, my own 2 feet, the subway map and looking up at the Empire State Building to determine which way was north or south if I ever found myself to be lost for any reason. I mean you have to be a moron to not learn your way around manhattan due the grid and numbered streets and avenues but even the outer boroughs are easy to memorize. Prior to that when i had a car living in dc, Maryland and Virginia I was fine without GPS. I live in south Florida now, driving again and using GPS for the first time since I’m still learning where the hell I am and my way around the county. I hate relying on it to drive to new destinations but it is helpful for providing alternate routes due to traffic, construction and accidents as well as providing estimates on arrival time. I’m memorizing routes and streets now and am thinking of ditching GPS for a while to force myself to use my brain to learn and memorize my way around the whole county

Gps changed my life.

R24, what part do you live in?

[quote] And self-driving cars are going to make people smarter?

No, they will make them dumber, but they'll protect themselves and the rest of us from getting killed in a DUI.

The electronic compass in my rear view mirror has been a godsend.

Call me crazy, but I really think that this is one of the best things about Girl Scouts/Boy Scouts.

TL;DR

That is NOT crazy, R28. You are absolutely right. I learned how to use a compass in Girl Scouts.

R30, me too! And it was the same compass that I had with me when I learned to drive (at 17, as mentioned up above). I used to keep it pinned to my seatbelt.

I'm on ebay looking to order one for my car right now.

My dad still uses a Thomas Guide. He never gets lost.

When I lived in the south SF Bay area, it got very confusing because freeways and streets marked north and south often went east and west, or visa versa.

In the morning or afternoon, the location of the sun helps determine direction...

[quote] I'm on ebay looking to order one for my car right now.

Why wouldn’t your car have a compass already?

It has an electric one on the rear view mirror, but I want a physical (non-electric one) that I can hold in my hand.

I have an expensive one for my kayak trips, but I want one of the good old cheapies (the globe in water with a safety pin).

R16 exactly. I use it the first few times, but then it’s in the old noggin.

I have inherent GPS since a kid. My grandparents took me to NYC when I was twelve . We stayed in Brooklyn Heights and I took my 75 yr old grandmother ALL over Manhattan on the subways.

This Fall I got my sister and her daughter out of Chelsea onto the Westside Hwy to the Saw Mill River Parkway and to the Taconic Stat PKWY and to the Mass Pike to Boston without getting lost and just glancing at my AAA maps. You want me along on trips abroad!

Only city that has thrown me for a loop is DC with it the odd geographical juxtapose and all the circles and squares

[quote] It has an electric one on the rear view mirror, but I want a physical (non-electric one) that I can hold in my hand.

Why? You already have a compass and you should drive with both hands on the wheel

[quote] Why? You already have a compass and ....

To prove the point that my completely unnecessary and cumbersome way of doing it was better. Hmmph

My dad was a navigator/bombardier in the Air Force. They had to learn to navigate by the stars in case computers went out. He would take us outside at night and name off all stars in the sky. Betelgeuse, the Pleiades, The Belt of Orion. Going on trips with him and my family, which we did often, was a military exercise. He knew exactly the route we would take and estimate our arrival time in each small town.

I’m good with maps but nothing like him.

R41, nice story!

In my old neighborhood, motorists were regularly guided by their GPS down a dirt road that ended in boat launch.

Man, if you're upset about my buying a $4 compass, you should see the shit I spend real money on.

Who cares? The Singularity is coming, our brains will be useless anyway.