Wayfinding atrophy? Blame GPS

HALLIE EPHRON: I admit it, I am directionally challenged. Right now I’m in NYC and it’s particularly obvious. I keep coming up out of the subway and heading the wrong way. East for West. North for South.

Fortunately for me, New Yorkers are incredibly patient and generous and do not roll their eyes when you stop them and ask, “Can you tell me, please, am I facing North?” as you stare down Sixth Avenue at the needle-nosed One World Trade Center.

I haven't always been, as they say, lost in familiar laces. I used to be able to come up out of the subway (the lines had letters: BMT, IRT, IND) and know instinctively which direction I was facing. Which meant for 90% of the time (barring lower Manhattan and the Village where the original cow paths defy right angles), I could  find pretty much any address without a map.

Now, I come up into the light of day and, whichever way I go, it’s always wrong. Even when I KNOW I’ll be wrong and reverse my assumptions… I’m still wrong. Even after I pull up walking directions on my phone, I go the wrong way.

This is not my fault. I blame GPS. 

I was fine finding my way all those years when I HAD to rely on my judgment. HAD to read a real map without a moving YOU ARE HERE button on it. HAD to notice landmarks along the way so I’d be able rewind my route and find my way home.

Now with GPS, I believe that as a result of all this ‘help,’ my natural way-finding ability has atrophied.

It's all that time spent on automatic pilot, staring at that little screen and following its instructions to "turn around when possible." My only worry: when it tells me “in 100 feet, turn right,” how far ahead is 100 feet.

What has improved is my relationship with my husband. In our household, I’m the designated driver (he grew up in Brooklyn and didn’t learn to drive until it was…too late. He drives like a beached whale, and only does it when he has to.) Used to be, he’d be in the passenger seat, juggling a massive fold-out map and trying to direct, and I’d be yelling “Shouldn't I turn here?” or “What do you mean turn right? It’s one way.” This would be compounded by the fact that he gets left and right confused.

So how’s your internal compass these days? As reliable as your GPS?

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