GPS makes you dumber

[Kinser79]

(07-20-2017, 05:57 PM)Bob Butler 54 Wrote: A brief comment on the original comment on how GPS makes you dumber.

There were earlier echoes of this.  As the frontier vanished and more people moved to the cities, people thought we were loosing wilderness survival skills...  which we were.  One response was the Boy Scouts of America attempting to keep the old skills alive.

I have also thought the GI good with their hands.  If it was broke, they could fix it.  That seems to be fading as well.

I suspect that as technology and culture shift, the most useful skill sets shift as well.  Overall, I would say the new internet and computer technology is putting a lot more information in the users hand, even if how to get the same information using dated hard copy methods becomes forgotten.

By and large this is mostly true.  Though there is still a large component of those who can still fix most things (my husband for example, he may teach history at the local child prison school but he can fix just about anything).  But I have noticed that my kid has difficulty using the card catalog (yes our library still has one though they plan on phasing it out soon), but can fix my mother's computer faster than I can.

In all honesty most of her problems are related to her poor choices, but I've eventually convinced her to leave any antivirus I put on there alone, so there are fewer problems.

That being said, in my previous posts I was complining of a stunning lack of common sense.  If the GPS machine is telling you to drive somewhere, but the road signs are saying detour, you follow the road signs.  When in doubt find yourself a local and ask for directions.  Most people will give them to you if you ask politely.