A conversation with a recent high school grad

He graduated this past May.

Yesterday, he was telling me that he had driven to the Twin Cities (Minneapolis / St. Paul) all by himself for the first time, to attend a certain event. It was about an hour and a half drive from here.

Naturally, he used the GPS on his phone to get there. But while there, his phone battery died.

So he was proudly telling me how, when he left, he circled around for a while until he figured out what road to take, how he actually thought about things like "East" and "West", and that he was able to get all the way home without the aid of his phone.

I shook his hand and said, "Welcome to my generation!"

He laughed.

But then I asked him exactly where in the Twin Cities this event had been. He did not know!

After all, he had used his phone to get there. 😏

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WillaKissing · 56-60, M

I always tell the young people we had navigation devices called M.A.P. or MAP when I was their age, and they were in fallible not leading you into where you did not want to go like a GPS does.

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MarineBob · 56-60, M

@WillaKissing oldest grandson is in basic now, guess what? They use watch GPSs

WillaKissing · 56-60, M

@MarineBob Nothing beats a map. I guess you can lose a map, or you compass, but it all should be taught still

WillaKissing · 56-60, M

@MarineBob Say you're in combat and the enemy deploys an EMP device knocking out your electronics. Guess what the map and compass will still function.

OlderSometimesWiser · F

Amazing how us dinosaurs managed to roam the earth without the aid of all those devices. 🦕

I really do miss paper maps though. I was a darn good map reader during those pre-historic times.

DrWatson · 70-79, M

@OlderSometimesWiser One of the things that frustrates me about Google maps is that it is geared toward simply giving us "directions" without giving us an actual sense of direction. When I search for an address, my instinct is to zoom out, to get the big picture of the surrounding area and to figure out what routes I might take. But when you zoom out, the street names (and the smaller streets themselves) disappear. And when you zoom in to read the names, you are in too close to see the big picture.

The assumption is that all I want is, "go one mile, turn left, go 500 ft, turn right".

I prefer paper maps as well, and I still have some.

SomeMichGuy · M

...o m g

pentagrammom

character tongue removed

bowman81 · M

🤦🏻

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