Are GPSes making us more unaware of our surroundings

[roadman65]

Yes many of us use them.  You program the location of point A and point B and it tells you step by step directions you need to take the entire way driving.  Some of us feel they are helpful to basic travel especially us non road geeks.  Instead of having to consult a map to find out which route you must take and along with not having accurate mileages on hand as the map not always does, you  now have the step by step mileages  for every route or street you take in your hand and at ease too.  Therefore its making this device a godsend to the motoring public in many people's eyes.  However, with the lack of the maps now that at one time actually showed the physical relationship between the two points you needed to travel between,  is no longer doing that anymore with the modern GPS.  Is that causing us to be more ignorant?

Think about it, with the map you still need to use your mind as you are coming to the conclusion of what road you are taking and actually see where the route runs compared to other routes.  Most of all you see where the point of origin is to where the point of destination are to each other as looking down on it from the sky  The GPS now is not really letting you see all of that as it just prints out words and telling you where to go first in how many miles to the next turn before doing it all over.  Your mind is not comprehending where you are at all times.

What do you think?  Do you think that GPS devices are making motorists more ignorant of their surroundings then the old map did?

[Rothman]

Yes.

[Scott5114]

No. People are ignorant of their surroundings whether or not they're using a GPS.

One of the desks I work at has a literal neon sign above it reading "Cashier". One of the most frequently asked questions we get there is "Is this Player's Club?"

Can't blame the GPS for that.

[US 81]

Yes. I don't use a GPS (well, I may play with one but I don't use one while driving) and people are increasingly unable to give me directions or landmarks.

[TXtoNJ]

No. People are ignorant of their surroundings whether or not they're using a GPS.

One of the desks I work at has a literal neon sign above it reading "Cashier". One of the most frequently asked questions we get there is "Is this Player's Club?"

Can't blame the GPS for that.

Agree with this. I think those of us with a good natural sense of direction only use the GPS to avoid traffic. I also think the rest of us only tended to learn routes in a linear fashion anyway, and as such haven't lost very much anyway.

GPS devices are digital TripTiks after all.

[jeffandnicole]

From personal experience:  The first time I used a GPS, it got me to my destination.  I had not a single clue what I had passed on the way there, so the point where I needed to use the GPS the next time I drove to the destination.  That time though, I paid a lot more attention to my surroundings.

In my carpool, just today, the driver said he heard on the radio prior to picking us up that there was an accident near exit 26 (which is the 295/76/42 interchange).  He asked me if that would affect us.  We've been driving this commute together for the past 15 years, which would mean we've passed Exit 26 a total of approximately 6,600 times (twice a day, approximately 220 days a year, for 15 years), and that doesn't include his personal driving which takes him thru the interchange on occasion.  And yet, he had absolutely no clue where Exit 26 was located.

Scott provides another example that has nothing to do with GPSs.  Some people are just total dumbasses when it comes to their surroundings. 

[wphiii]

But without a GPS, people would be forced to at least do some of the legwork themselves as far as understanding their route and knowing what to do at certain decision points. They still may not be paying great attention to their surroundings, but they wouldn't be able to just be totally braindead about it.

People have always been and will always be oblivious, sure. GPS devices are just feeding into that in ways that had never been possible before. They may not be a "cause," per se, but they are an exacerbating factor.

There was an NYT piece on this very subject just a week or so ago: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/14/opinion/sunday/ignore-the-gps-that-ocean-is-not-a-road.html?_r=0

[PHLBOS]

Short answer to the OP's question, "Yes".

One of my sister-in-law's son stopped using his GPS unit (he got his driver's license years before GPS' became widely-used) because he realized that he was losing his sense of direction while using it.

More recently, when a friend of mine (who's only a few months older than me) went to pick me and a friend up from Abington, PA (Montgomery County) an drove us to Amber; another friend who was with him had the GPS on his smartphone.  The GPS had my friend turn off-and-on the main road (using residential side-streets) several times along the way; when in reality, he should have just stayed on Susquehanna Road (it's not like the road was traffic-gridlocked at the time) except at the immediate origin and destination points.  I'm guessing that the GPS routing may have been set to avoid as many traffic signals as possible.

Had this trip been done 5 to 10 years ago; my friend would've just pulled out a road map and saw that Susquehanna Road was essentially a straight line between Ambler and Abington.

[rawmustard]

No. People are ignorant of their surroundings whether or not they're using a GPS.

One of the desks I work at has a literal neon sign above it reading "Cashier". One of the most frequently asked questions we get there is "Is this Player's Club?"

Can't blame the GPS for that.

Of course it probably doesn't help when some casinos combine the cage with player services.

[triplemultiplex]

People might be unaware of their surroundings, but on the plus side, they never ask you for directions any more.  Everyone knows me as a geography person so they'd come to me about how to get somewhere from somewhere else.  It was annoying sometimes, but now I don't have much opportunity impress people with my spatial knowledge.

I think you also need to consider the increased awareness various navigation technologies provide.  They clue people in to places they might have not actively sought out before.  We are creatures of habit for the most part and might not know that a better restaurant exists just a couple lights passed the one we always go to.  Folks drive by the best parks in their town all the time and never go because from the highway, it just looks like some woods.  GPS combined with user-generated ratings can clue them in to new places.  Granted most of them will still need the GPS to get there and everywhere else, but they have more little islands of spatial knowledge than they would have otherwise.

[GaryV]

It makes me more aware, because I'm trying to beat the Google lady at her game and see if I can find a route that's better than hers.

BTW, why will the Google lady refuse to use some streets?  For example sometimes I have Google Maps on all the way into the parking garage (if I don't get a chance to turn off the phone before).  She refuses to use the side street behind the garage.  Instead, she tells me to turn left, then right and then right again - going around 3 sides of the block instead of just the one side that I'm already on.

[Pete from Boston]

The question should be rephrased to:

Do you learn better when you've figured out a complex problem by reasoning through it, or when you've been handed the answer and never have to?

This isn't new.  Far fewer people know anything about how their food grows or car runs, either, because they don't need to.  This frees their brains to binge-watch Mad Men and do zumba.

[1995hoo]

I guess part of it depends on whether you use the device as a navigational aid or whether you depend on it to be your entire navigational support. If you use it as an aid, say because you know where you're going but you'd like confirmation so you don't miss the turn late at night or in an area you don't visit that often, then I don't think it's a negative. Similar principle if you decide to explore via a different route but want the device there to guide you back if you make a wrong turn or some such.

It's the people who depend entirely on it and will yap at you if you go a different way from what it says who are the problem because they're unaware of alternate routes and don't know how to get places. Those are the people who get stuck all day in traffic because they don't know about the other road two miles to the north that runs parallel to the one on which they're stuck. But you know, those people were probably just as clueless in the days before electronic navigation aids. It's easy to look at a map and to figure out how to go from DC to New York without using the "traditional" I-95/Jersey Turnpike route, but thousands of people have no idea there are other routes (such as via Pennsylvania). Doesn't matter whether you give them a sat-nav, a paper map, a mapping website, whatever.....they'll go up the Turnpike and then complain about the tolls afterward.

[SD Mapman]

The only reason I use a GPS is to navigate through cities (it has a "what lane you need to be in" feature) because I am not used to cities. Other than that, I make up my own routes and turn off the sound on the GPS.

[roadman65]

I see all the time in Florida.  I think people arrive from wherever and they rely so much on the GPS that they do not care about what is around them.  Plus what Scott says in his post, its not only roads but everything.

Another issue I had was locating a Hampton Inn near Miami International Airport off FL 826 at 36th Street.  I could not locate it because it was on a side street so I stopped at a local gas station and convenience store to find out where it was.  Not only was the person unaware of the surroundings of the intersection he worked at, but he saw the sign for Hampton Inn from the place he was standing which was behind the counter that faced the door.  It was when I walked out I then noticed it, and I then had to look back at the guy and wonder how he could be so ignorant and unhelpful to me.  In fact if I was in grade school and I was the one being asked where the Hampton Inn was while looking at it, and saying that "I did not know" I would be made a mockery not only by the person asking me the question but by other people as well.

I think that time is an issue too as we just evolved into such independence that we are all on different pages so to speak.  We do not care anymore about uniform rulings and our mind also focuses on ourselves and if something is handed to us like the GPS where we do not have to do work at reading a map and making the best decision, we will use it.  Plus it seems like the norm compared to the exception, and what the majority does now is the rule of thumb. 

Bottom line is that GPSes just add to the fire that has been burning already.  Scott, I must agree, with you that no one now is aware of anything around them about anything.  Yes  I see it even in Church that I attend where you would figure everyone is being scrutinized actually have the most careless attitude about anything!

[noelbotevera]

http://fallout.wikia.com/wiki/Vault_21

This is what would be a perfect world. Everyone is equal, and we can settle our differences. We can either say that a GPS is useless or useful. We know our surroundings. Because in there, they're all equal.

(props to anyone who actually played Fallout: New Vegas)

[1995hoo]

roadman65's comment prompts me to think of the many younger people working as cashiers who can't make change if the register doesn't calculate the amount for them.

[formulanone]

No, although entirely debatable because anything can be a distraction.

People can find more points of interest in an unfamiliar area than if they didn't have access to some sort of interactive map. Naturally, someone could ask someone to the local restaurant, park, or curiosity...and hope the given instructions make sense. For all the stories of effortlessly plodding from point A to point B, there's stories of others I meet that are glad they took the backroads.

It isn't in everyone's interest to enjoy looking at nor have more than a basic understanding of how they work. Nor is it practical to expect many travelers to carry dozens of local (and potentially outdated) maps or atlases.

I know a lot of folks here love the latest "distracted by GPS" story, paralleling it with the downfall of mankind, but like lots of technology, there's just as much good as bad with navigation assisting a driver who's unfamiliar and doesn't need the visual distractions. For some, the little computer is another distraction, and for others, it is not.

There's probably thousands of folks who can just get on with other interests because they don't have to worry about planning their trip as meticulously as we might.

[Jardine]

When my TomTom still worked, I needed to be on my toes due to it's bizarre preference for dirt cow paths over pavement.

[txstateends]

This is like the times when I hear of people using their phone number presets so much they don't even know the actual phone number they're calling.

[Pete from Boston]

This is like the times when I hear of people using their phone number presets so much they don't even know the actual phone number they're calling.

This is more the norm than the exception.

[jwolfer]

This is like the times when I hear of people using their phone number presets so much they don't even know the actual phone number they're calling.

This is more the norm than the exception.

I used to know everyone's phone numbers, it was a point of pride. I still know my friends parents phone numbers from 30 years ago.

Sadly I can't even tell you my kids numbers today

[1995hoo]

This is like the times when I hear of people using their phone number presets so much they don't even know the actual phone number they're calling.

This is more the norm than the exception.

I used to know everyone's phone numbers, it was a point of pride. I still know my friends parents phone numbers from 30 years ago.

Sadly I can't even tell you my kids numbers today

I use my phone number (with area code) from the 1970s as one of my various PINs on my electronic devices. My parents might remember it if I asked them, but I'd probably have to say the number. Nobody else, including my brother, would ever remember that.

[jeffandnicole]

Guy in my carpool has all of his former license plate numbers memorized. I don't even bother trying to remember my current tag numbers!

Back to the subject a bit...

I think many people are unaware of their surrounds if they have no need for them. I bring up my carpool often because we are 4 guys with all different awarenesses. 1 guy was very good in knowing the area and what was around, but I've noticed he's slipped a bit with current things such as signage. Another isn't too bad. The 3rd could tell you everything within a mile of his house, but couldn't tell you much of anything 2 miles away, even though he's lived and driven in the area all his life.

On our commute to and from work, I'll notice differences (signage, etc) a month before they say something.

[jwolfer]

Guy in my carpool has all of his former license plate numbers memorized. I don't even bother trying to remember my current tag numbers!

Back to the subject a bit...

I think many people are unaware of their surrounds if they have no need for them. I bring up my carpool often because we are 4 guys with all different awarenesses. 1 guy was very good in knowing the area and what was around, but I've noticed he's slipped a bit with current things such as signage. Another isn't too bad. The 3rd could tell you everything within a mile of his house, but couldn't tell you much of anything 2 miles away, even though he's lived and driven in the area all his life.

On our commute to and from work, I'll notice differences (signage, etc) a month before they say something.

I am amazed at people who live in a place their whole life and they can't navigate anywhere beyond their everyday routine.

I think some is innate ability. My 5 year old has been noticing surroundings since she could talk.