Google Maps.

This is something thats been bugging me for a while. And Im not trying to blow my own horn or anything Im just making an observation. I used to be referred to as the ‘Melways ‘ in the years just after highschool. If you needed to get somewhere in Melbourne I would get you there with complete accuracy 95% of the time. I have a shocking memory and would not be able to tell you what I had for dinner the night before but if I had been to Sunshine one time 5 years ago I would be able to follow the same exact route 5 years later. Don’t ask me to tell you street names either, it took me 17 years of my life to realise what street turned into the street of my family home, dont need them, cant remember them.

When forced into a new environment your brain subconsciously makes mental notes of your surrondings, leaving Hansel and Gretal bread crumb-esque memories in your brain. I guess I was really good at that. I was conscious of my surrondings so I would navigate my way through Melbourne using familiar landmarks.

Testament to what Adrian was saying in last weeks lecture about knowing how to find facts rather than the facts themselves, I have completely lost my Navy Captain worthy navigational skills. All due to the bloody too-easy-to-use Iphone and the genius App that is Google Maps. It’s just too convenient. I don’t care where I’m going these days, conciously and subconciosly I know that I dont need to rely on taking mental notes of my surrondings, my Iphone will always be with me, it’ll always tell me the way.

People always say ‘I’m lost without my phone’ or ‘I can’t live without my Iphone’. And yes, I have said this as well. I love how much easier it is now too, I think I have mentioned before just how much I love what we have now thanks to the technology. It’s just, maybe we are taking ourselves and our abilities a little too much for granted as well. Maybe we should pay a little more attention to them, maybe test them out every once in a while, because maybe we will lose them for good. HEY maybe thats not evolution.

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