A surge in auto GPS receivers?

Has anyone else noticed a sudden surge in the use of auto GPS receivers? It seems as if 1 out of every 10 cars I pass on the highway has a GPS receiver! They are easy to spot, especially at night when they look like a big glowing boxes mounted on the dashboard.

I don't like the idea of using GPS receivers to find my way around well defined routes. I think GPS receivers are more of a crutch than a useful tool for the average person. If you know how to read a map and follow signs, you shouldn't need a GPS receiver. For delivery drivers and anyone else who frequently travels to new places, I can understand the time saving ability of a GPS receiver, but for all you other drivers, learn to read a map!

If you're hiking a mountain or camping in unfamiliar or unmarked wilderness, I can see how having a GPS receiver could save your life. But trekking into such a situation without also knowing how to use a compass to find your way around is even more stupid than going unprepared all together.

Don't rely on electronics to do something you're capable of learning how to do. There is no electronic fix for human stupidity.

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  1. “There is no electronic fix for human stupidity”

    šŸ™ unless you’re DJT, then there is too such a fix.

    I have a GPS, but only use it on long trips. Taking my eyes off the road to look at a map, well…. life of djt………. ring a bell?

    All I had to do (1997) was drive the Parts Van to a body shop north of here. I ended up NE of here in Ohio.

    So yes Raam, there is an electronic fix for DJT and that my friend is a Magellan GPS.

  2. I’m not disagreeing that GPS devices are useful! I think they are very useful, especially when traveling to new places, but I also think they’re very distracting, just like cellphones.

    I’m also trying to emphasize how electronic devices that help us do something, also have an opposite effect — they assist us in ‘unlearning’ that which would have been necessary to learn without them.

    For example, if every single car had the best GPS device imaginable, would children grow up expecting to know how to read a road map? With GPS devices making the leap into our cellphones, we wont even need a map while traveling outside our car!

    I have a real-life example of this very trend: I cannot write cursive. I’ve typed on a keyboard my entire life and having been home schooled, I’ve never had a real need to learn to write. My hand writing is worse than that of a 5th grader and I’m embarrassed when I need to write something! My English and grammar don’t suffer the same deficiency, but does that mean hand writing is useless now that we have other means of expressing words? I argue it is not.

    It’s a bit scary to think that unless there is some catastrophic event that prohibits technological advancement, handwriting will become what art is today — something interesting to look at that only percentage of the global population is capable of. As civilization advances and our dependency on technology increases, our very existence becomes easier and easier to wipe out.

  3. “Iā€™m not disagreeing that GPS devices are useful!”

    Yes, I know. I was agreeing with the “stupidity” comment. Sometimes I amaze myself. šŸ˜†

    I also agree with what you said about all these devices that make life easier are “unlearning” us. When’s the last time you’ve gotten a handwritten letter or seen a drawing that wasn’t done by photoshop?

    I lost my cursive in the 4th grade with HUGE writting assignments. My writting went from really nice to really hard to read. Today, I have to stop and think, how do I make the next letter.

    I’d hate to see what would happen if all the electronics in the world would stop working for a day. Most of the population would have no idea how to survive for a day without a computer, cellphone or TV.