Have sat navs messed up your natural sense of direction?

[mr dazzler]

This may have been discussed before, but its something I have gradually become more aware of.
I wonder if any one else suspects that sat nave tecnology has upset your natural ability to relate to your environment, wether on roads or in the landscape? When I was younger I was able to quickly develop a sense of direction, where landmarks were, and a clear internal mental picture of the area I was in, relative to a physical paper map. I was quite keen at orienteering. But this has diminished. I have become far less able to have that precise sense of direction. Of course at my age it might just be the onset of senility, but I began to think, this started to happen precisely as I began to rely on the sat nav for directions rather than studying maps and the physical environment. Has anyone else had this happen?

 

[Macaroon]

Sounds coincidental to me; I used to fly for a living and used instruments a lot, that never affected my innate sense of place/direction, but age certainly has. I now have to think hard about things that were once second nature to me, IIRC it started for me in my mid fifties.

 

[Toddy]

Maybe it's being female, but my Satnav has done just the opposite for me. The confidence that I will manage to find my way has actually for the first time in my life given me a sense of direction I am spatially aware of the area I live in (and my country) in a way that I had never been before. Google maps too is a positive boon, not only as a sense of scale but in the layout of, and relationship, of villages and towns to roads and rivers.
I know the blasted thing can lead me totally astray, but it will still always manage to get me back to somewhere I recognise that I can use to get home

M

 

[John Fenna]

I have never used a Sat Nav and have only used GPS when making a map in true wilderness conditions (Ghana) for other members of the exped to follow...
I like maps...
When in cars with other drivers who have Sat Nav they have always become lost...

 

[xylaria]

I used to have a really good sense of direction. I dont now, it sounds like a pun but I am lost without it. I thought it was earth magnetic field strength dropping or wifi or em field problems, I didnt think it was age. I am normally alright in places with lousy phone reception. Lammas eco village I have no direction sense at all, it is like the internal compass is spinning. There is something in that whole valley which throws me. It actually feels more normal up the hill where the transmitter is that is does in valley bottom, so it is isnt just electromagnetic fog interfering. That part of Pembrokeshire has magnetic anomalies which makes me think maybe its the earth field strength.

 

[cranmere]

I rarely use a satnav, we have one in one car and not the other and I don't miss it. I have a very good sense of direction and I like real paper maps. When using a satnav I have no idea where I am nor what direction I'm travelling in and I find that disconcerting. If I use a map I have an overview and a 3D feel for where I am in relation to where I was and where I want to be.

 

[demographic]

Naah, some people were feckless before there were maps, their descendants were feckless with maps and their descendants are feckless with or without GPS.

 

[santaman2000]

Sounds coincidental to me; I used to fly for a living and used instruments a lot, that never affected my innate sense of place/direction, but age certainly has. I now have to think hard about things that were once second nature to me, IIRC it started for me in my mid fifties.

Yeah, this sounds right to me too.

 

[petrochemicals]

And women have smaller iron deposits.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/11/17/the_odd_body_nose_compass/

But better wombs!

 

[Robson Valley]

Women have much larger gold deposits. She deposits the gold, you get the shaft.

GPS is horse-pucky in narrow mountain valleys. Same dumbness as cell-phones.
Learn where you are, learn where you're going and learn how to get back.
Duh, like physical landmarks in your face. No batteries required.
Come up and hike 100 miles in my mountains. Maps and compass are still reliable.
I'd demand that as a modest bushcraft skill.

My Recta Prospector is 51 years old this summer. My Brunton Eclipse 1099 is a baby = 10 yrs old.
Yes, I have got "turned around." Twice in sudden (normal) mountain snow storms. Sick feeling.
No amount of cursing worked it out. Each compass served it's purpose. Off by 90*

I had a really nice Garman GPS. On Day 2, it failed to initialise at a site where 6 satellites were up.
Ever after that, if you tossed it into the air, it would, most reliably, indicate DOWN.

 

[bearbait]

Mostly use just map and compass when out hiking. GPS unit comes along for survey purposes for the OpenStreetMap Foundation. Very occasionally use the GPS to confirm/deny I know where I am in poor viz or difficult terrain.


GPS useful driving alone in cities, especially the ones where everyone drives on the wrong side of the road, and easier than trying to thumb the map on your lap while driving.

Used an early GPS at sea back in the early 90s, before selective availability was turned off. Again a useful cross check to regular nav by DR and sextant.

Have dabbled with geocaching, but I try to find the cache without the GPS, just using nav and pace counting and so on, with some success.

So map and compass are my baseline; GPS a useful tool.


Navigation is the art of knowing that you are not where you think you are.

 

[pysen78]

I use my phone to find my way when going to meetings and new spots on the map (I'm a landscape architect and when doing an on-site recce of a new project, it's not really fair to let the customer pay for me sightseeing around the whole neighbourhood)

I find, the time to reach the threshold of actually knowing my way around a new town/city is greatly prolonged since the gps came into play. The driving is more of a ride-along when getting directions from a machine.
When faced with getting to know a place without those aids, as in, on vacation with no 3G, I find I learn the layout of a new town about as quickly as before.

The "spatial awareness" is a cognitive thing, not related to any bones in the skull, I'm sure. I can point out rough north anytime, even on a cloudy day, if I've come on my own by car/bike or on foot. If I've come by metro or if I'm inside a large building, I'm lost.

As far as maps go, I think there are map people and mud people. I'm raised with maps. My dad was a city planner, and also collected maps. I liked exploring them and making imaginary landscapes in my head when reading them. In my work I've met people who can't tell what's up and down, and have no sense for whether the elevation contours indicate a hill or a valley...

City-people especially if raised in large cities seem to loose interest in how different places connect to eachother on a map. They learn the map of the metro, and leave the rest to taxi drivers. They will pull a blank face if asked to give directions on a map.

EDIT: Oh, and the mud people: My mother is one of them. They find their way around, expertly, without map, by the use of landmarks and visual memory. They are hardly helped by maps, as their personal "tells" on the paths aren't necessarily conveyed on it. ("The funny-looking tree with lichen on one branch", or "where that old barn used to be before it burned" doesn't convert very well to a map symbol)
Similarly they loose track of everything with time, since the landscape changes. My mom hates going back to her childhood haunts, because the woods look so different with the forest being harvested and replanted during the years, and she can't find her way around.

 

[homesicksteve]

 

[mr dazzler]

Thanks for all the responses
I think its not onset of senility, not that far gone yet, come to think about it, its probably more like a case of lack of practise after gradually coming to rely on sat nav...LOL remember the days when every driver in London had their a to z on the dashboard?

 

[rik_uk3]

I think its an "age thing" combined with perhaps looking back with rose tinted glasses, were you/we ever as good as we'd like to think we were.

 

[Kerne]

Got a GPS for walking which I never turn on. Got a SatNav in the car which is useful - especially for finding a specific address in a strange town when you're in the car on your own. However, I don't like the lack of a "big picture" and I think it is that which can disorient you sometimes.

 

[bilmo-p5]

When I was driving I used online maps, the night before, to check out where I had to go the next day and then try and do it from memory. Mostly it worked out ok and I found and earmarked landmarks for future reference. Always carried gps but only used it if I was completely lost. I can still find my way about well enough and tend to keep an eye on the sun and the wind; the legacy of a previous life.

 

[jonny the monkey]

If I'm driving I like using an online map to get a general sense of where I need to be going, writing down a few turns on a post-it note and sticking that to the steering wheel. If I need to be somewhere specific I like to have a look at google maps 'ground view' so I can see the buildings around what I'm headed for to know I'm in the right area. I like to keep tabs on where I am in relation to North though, so when I'm out and about I'll always try and stay aware of it and when I find myself in new urban environments I'm always able to get back to somewhere familiar in a roundabout fashion, should the need arise.