And which study again did you pull that 5 % figure from?
In the late 80’s, I remember discussing / debating stuff like the approaching fall of Communist Europe, details of the high-tech armament of NATO, anatomic and behavioral differences of the Great Apes, and the merits and faults of various RPG systems. I wasn’t talking to myself, and I didn’t have but a handful of peers, randomly clumped together by geography, to discuss anything with. So, I call the 5 % figure tech believer’s nonsense.
Back in my day, we didn’t have or need Google Maps or GPS to navigate Boston by car!
Boredom isn’t necessarily a bad thing. It drives you to get out of the house to find something interesting to do.
“The Mall” was kind of a big thing when I was growing up. We didn’t have most of the stores the OP mentioned within biking distance. It served as a place to shop, work summer/after school jobs, socialize, and hang out. Perhaps not the most “productive” use of time. But then again, I also don’t understand why in the most automated, technologically advanced society in history there continues to be this push to “be productive” all the time. Most people can’t even define what that really means and whether most people actually “produce” anything meaningful in their work is debatable.
Sure, had I known in advance my GPS was going to fail me. Like I said, I use GPS all the time, and most of the time it’s great. But it can fail in spectacular ways, and I wish I’d had a good street map for backup when it did.
In my defense, I wasn’t behaving rationally that day either. I was deeply addicted to caffeine at the time, and the first place I was attempting to get to was the coffee shop where I was going to get my fix. Having trouble getting there was greatly exacerbating the twitchy, vague sense of panic I was experiencing.
But generally, going somewhere new, if my wife is driving I prefer to pull out the map and navigate that way. Navigating by map when travelling solo is much harder, and even on familiar routes I have a bad tendency to miss important exits if I don’t have a GPS yelling at me.
How can a paper map show the scenic route better than a digital map with satellite overlay and traffic reports? And with another window open Googling “what is the scenic route to x?”
Because a phone only has so much resolution. It’s a very narrow view of the world, and it dynamically makes roads disappear when you zoom out to get a bigger picture. A map shows you all the byways, and allows you to create a new route, based only on your own whims of the moment. This may be possible with a phone, but it is harder.
If I decide, “hey, let’s turn right here”, the GPS is going to immediately start trying to get me to turn around, unless I go through the effort of adding a waypoint somewhere up ahead. But maybe then I decide, “ok, let’s turn left here” and then we have to do it all over again. A paper map lets you put all that aside, get a birds-eye view of where you’re going, and select a route as you go without any futzing to convince the computer you really meant to go that way.
Also, there is no ‘the scenic route’ there are many.
You can look at the map outside of driving mode. Zoom in and out as you please to choose your route. I mean, sure, it can’t help you choose the scenic route when you’re in the middle of traffic but neither can a paper map.
And Google maps gives alternative routes with time differences attached. If you miss a turn it immediately gives alternatives on the fly. I mean, I’m not saying it’s wrong to prefer paper maps. But you have to pull over to do a bunch of things you’re talking about with paper maps.
I always think of this classic bit from How I Met Your Mother…
In 1989 I had an interview just outside of Boston. I was still in college getting a post bachelor’s degree - I knew how to drive but had no real experience with it. No car, and no need - everything was within walking distance. I flew to Boston on Memorial Day and managed to get to my hotel after only a few hours of fear. After the Tuesday interview (the 6 hour interview was very near the hotel so no trouble getting to it), I then had to drive through Boston to get to the airport. That was terrifying, frustrating, and other adjectives - I missed my flight but caught the last shuttle back to my destination - and didn’t get the job.
This.
Hear, hear!
You dodged a bullet there. If you got the job you could have spent years of your life stuck in Boston traffic.
Agreed