Our GPS World

The following conversation is not uncommon to hear: How did you get there? The response: I don’t know. I used the GPS.

There was a time when people actually learned which roads went where. They looked at maps. They understood how to go north, south, east and west. And friends and relatives were known for either giving really good or really bad directions. And of course the downside was that people got lost—which produced another level of anxiety—fear of getting lost or the fear (many men had) of asking for directions. I believe that is why gas stations were so strategically placed—gas station attendants were designated living compasses. And if the gas station man couldn’t help you it didn’t matter –all gas stations sold maps.

And in the 90’s with the advent of the internet, we got lost less often—we used Mapquest. Mapquest told us exact mileage in between turns. It told us whether to bear right or bear left. And one of the best features was the calculated ETA—estimated time of arrival—which was always wrong because it assumed that one would never encounter a red light or a stop sign. But because the printed mapquest directions were still a map of some sort—active participation in the direction finding was still necessary. One had to know what road one was on to determine where to go next.

In 2003 when my husband bought his Lexus I fought him not to spend the extra money on a GPS system. I thought it was unnecessary. I thought it was a device that would be more of an annoyance than an aid. I thought it would be like my father’s 1986 Chrysler New Yorker that would tell you a door is ajar—to which my father would say no a door is not a jar, it is a door. The car’s ability to “talk” got old really fast.

But I quickly embraced the GPS—especially since its life entry coincided with the start of college visits for Samantha. The Lexus took me all over the place—and to places that I would have been too scared to travel to had I not had computer navigation. And for our cars that didn’t have installed GPS, we purchased a Garmin. We were omni-navi.

But GPS has its flaws too—like I would have liked to have told it to avoid the high crime areas in Washington DC when I was traveling with Sam and Briana to GW University. Or that traveling through Manhattan from the midtown tunnel to the Lincoln tunnel up 34^th Street at 5:00 pm is not going to take 14 minutes—pick another route. Or that the upper level of the GW bridge, despite the allowance of trucks, seems less treacherous than the lower level.

When my husband and I headed out last Saturday night for wedding #2 we encountered a little problem with our navigation. The first one was an input error—we needed to travel to Washington Street in downtown Brooklyn—not Washington Avenue. And that would have been easily corrected if Washington Street was in the GPS system---but it was not. And that is greatest problem with GPS—sometimes it is unaware of the road you need to travel on. And my husband was not familiar with that area of Brooklyn so personal knowledge was of no consequence. So we looked at the enclosed directions from the venue and used the GPS to get to one of the streets-- but again once there, we were unable to figure out which way to go. We were lost. And now we had to think old school style—but there was no gas station to pull into. And then from the bowels of my brain I remembered that we had an option. We could call the venue, give them our coordinates and get directions from a living person. And we did. And we arrived in minutes. It was amazing—no technology was necessary—okay well yes, I guess the cell phone counts.

When Kara went to Chicago this summer I had her write down the address of where she was staying and the phone numbers of her friends on a piece of paper for her pocket just in case she lost her phone. I also told her that she and her friends needed to pick a spot in Grant Park to meet at a certain time-and if she was lost she could ask the policeman. She was amazed that I could think of such creative options—they weren’t . It’s what we did prior to cell phones and GPS.

Hagstrom was the largest map and atlas company in the country. They were founded in 1916. They are now out of business. No one uses maps anymore. And no one knows where they are at any given moment either. If I tell my kids to go east on Old Country road they have no idea what I am talking about. And so too if I ask them the phone number of their best friend—without the contact list on their  phone they are clueless. Technology has consequences---and I am not sure they are always so good.