There’s an anxiety that takes hold when people are lost. It can make people very irritable and cause them to rash things because it feels better to do something even if it’s the wrong thing. I’ve found this out from years of backpacking using a map and compass. GPS software is a great thing but I can understand why some people don’t trust it, it’s not without it’s faults. You can’t trust it explicitly. IMO because of this technology we are losing our ability to know where we are in a space. Following the linear directions from a GPS app we don’t picture where we are in relation to our destination. Your friend probably had memorized how to get to his job at that exit by arriving at it from a particular direction. Deviation from the norm threw him off. It’s interesting how technology changes us and we become dependent on it. I grew up reading maps before GPS having had delivery jobs, still have the county map books. There was a time when people navigated by stars at night and by following flowing water.
He doesn’t get to blame GPS… he started driving before that was common; and in any case, these highways have been where they are for even longer (so it’s not a map issue on navigation,)
These are the largest interstates in the area and the interchanges literally have signs telling you they’re coming up for a mile or more.
We’re talking about a guy that fucked up going to Kansas City when it’s literally just a matter of jumping on 35 (either works,) and going south. (He got lost going through Des Moines. Ended up on 80 in Iowa city. That was when his wife stopped letting him navigate cross country.)
I too grew up navigating with paper maps. The one thing I hate hate hate about GPS navigation systems in cars is their insistence that up=forward instead of up=north. I know you can change settings for this but sometimes you forget to set it and when going to an unfamiliar location the constant rotating of the map is more disorienting than anything.
There’s an anxiety that takes hold when people are lost. It can make people very irritable and cause them to rash things because it feels better to do something even if it’s the wrong thing. I’ve found this out from years of backpacking using a map and compass. GPS software is a great thing but I can understand why some people don’t trust it, it’s not without it’s faults. You can’t trust it explicitly. IMO because of this technology we are losing our ability to know where we are in a space. Following the linear directions from a GPS app we don’t picture where we are in relation to our destination. Your friend probably had memorized how to get to his job at that exit by arriving at it from a particular direction. Deviation from the norm threw him off. It’s interesting how technology changes us and we become dependent on it. I grew up reading maps before GPS having had delivery jobs, still have the county map books. There was a time when people navigated by stars at night and by following flowing water.
He doesn’t get to blame GPS… he started driving before that was common; and in any case, these highways have been where they are for even longer (so it’s not a map issue on navigation,)
These are the largest interstates in the area and the interchanges literally have signs telling you they’re coming up for a mile or more.
We’re talking about a guy that fucked up going to Kansas City when it’s literally just a matter of jumping on 35 (either works,) and going south. (He got lost going through Des Moines. Ended up on 80 in Iowa city. That was when his wife stopped letting him navigate cross country.)
Send this man to the store for milk, block his phone number, and let him lose himself to the road. I’m frustrated just hearing about him lmao.
I too grew up navigating with paper maps. The one thing I hate hate hate about GPS navigation systems in cars is their insistence that up=forward instead of up=north. I know you can change settings for this but sometimes you forget to set it and when going to an unfamiliar location the constant rotating of the map is more disorienting than anything.