The younger generation's dependence on technology

21forme

Well-Known Member
#1
Not a BJ story, but funny enough that I thought it's worth posting...

My daughter lives about 30 minutes away and was coming to visit, via a ride from a friend. She called en route, saying there was a lot of traffic. I asked where she was and she said her iPhone's GPS doesn't work while she's talking on the phone. I then asked her if the car had windows.
 

Canceler

Well-Known Member
#2
Reminds me of an FML I saw about a gal who pushed the button to unlock her car door, but it didn't work, so she called her boyfriend for advice.
He suggested inserting the key into the lock.
 

Thunder

Well-Known Member
#3
21, you shouldn't be ragging on my generation ;) I know members of your generation who are very intelligent but who are lucky that they don't have weak bladders. I say this because a turtle could find their to a bathroom faster than them even with sign postings less than 5 feet away ;) Heaven help them if they did have to find a restroom quickly :p (I know I'm going to catch hell for this :laugh:)

P.S. It's more a woman thing. GPS's are like security blankets for them. I have never used a GPS not will I ever as I refuse to take part in the dumbing down of America that has left us dependent on technology. (I must be very old fashioned because I still carry AAA maps in my car on the rare occasions that I do get lost.) Not to mention GPS's are often very wrong in the directions that they give.
 
#4
My wife and I used to google for directions on a trip. Most of the time the directions were so poorly stated that we got on the wrong road. It never gave us the best route. We do so much better since we switched back to reading a map.

We were on a trip once and the google directions said to turn left on old solomon island road. It failed to say that old solomon island road crossed the main road about a dozen times. Apparently the new road turned the old winding original road into more or less a straight shot.
 

AC232323

Well-Known Member
#5
I have never used a map nor will I ever as I refuse to take part in the dumbing down of America that has left us dependent on technology. I must be very old fashioned because I still navigate off of the North Star and the directions my grand pappy told me. :)
 

aslan

Well-Known Member
#6
Thunder said:
21, you shouldn't be ragging on my generation ;) I know members of your generation who are very intelligent but who are lucky that they don't have weak bladders. I say this because a turtle could find their to a bathroom faster than them even with sign postings less than 5 feet away ;) Heaven help them if they did have to find a restroom quickly :p (I know I'm going to catch hell for this :laugh:)

P.S. It's more a woman thing. GPS's are like security blankets for them. I have never used a GPS not will I ever as I refuse to take part in the dumbing down of America that has left us dependent on technology. (I must be very old fashioned because I still carry AAA maps in my car on the rare occasions that I do get lost.) Not to mention GPS's are often very wrong in the directions that they give.
I love my GPS. It makes any town easy to negotiate. I took it to Seattle last year and it made a big difference. I already knew Vegas retty well, but you can even get lost there if you wander out in the "boonies" past Henderson proper, or up north by the Aliante. And I'd be dead in Long Island without it. Yeah, I could go back to the paper maps, but what a chore trying to figure out the best way to get anywhere. It also came in real handy driving coast to coast when you have to maneveur around different towns. I'm sold on the new technology. But, true, sometime the GPS will take you the "stupid" way which you will later discover as you learn your way around better. I don't mind trying shortcuts even with the GPS because it will eventually recalculate and help me out on my new chosen way. Also, you can combine GPS with Google maps or paper maps to find the best possible route. With new technology, you just have to be aware of both their advantages and their limitations.
 
#7
aslan said:
I don't mind trying shortcuts even with the GPS because it will eventually recalculate and help me out on my new chosen way. Also, you can combine GPS with Google maps or paper maps to find the best possible route. With new technology, you just have to be aware of both their advantages and their limitations.
Couldn't have said it better myself, aslan. :toast:
 

aslan

Well-Known Member
#10
sagefr0g said:
I once had a GPS tell me to go right when I was sure it should have been left. I decided to follow it anyway and what it did was lead me in a giant loop back to where I should have been in the firsr place but farther down the line. After that, whenever the GPS says one thing but I think another from my innate sense of direction, I stop and regroup. One thing you can do is to click on the feature that forecasts the entire plan of turns along the way and see if it makes any sense. Another thing to do is to look on Google maps or Mapquest or other mapping service to see what the best route is. I don't bother with paper maps anymore because all that information is available on the Internet in a better updated condition and you can try various ways to get to the same place and see the difference in miles and ETAs.

Just today the GPS took me a different way from Dover, DE, to Virginia. It depends on where you are when you start the GPS which way it will guide you. In today's case, I found a better and quicker way to get out of town and on the highway without going through so many small towns and traffic lights.
 

Gamblor

Well-Known Member
#11
I like to befuddle and tell the younger generations crazy tales of growing up back in the olden caveman days. When we had to use maps and ask for directions to get from place to place. Where we had to go to the library and look up information. Where we had to put in coins into these crazy phone machines to make phone calls. Where we had to actually go outside to socialize and play with other kids. Where we went to record stores and had to buy crazy plastic contraptions to listen to music. They think I'm so crazy old man who must have lived on another planet.
 

JulieCA

Well-Known Member
#12
I cleaned out my garage and found a couple boxes of paperback books my kids loved when they were young teens. One of my friends said "keep them for your grandkids!"

The kids are now in their mid-20s and show no signs of settling down and having children. I'm supposed to store these for 10+ years just in case I have grandkids and just in case they want to read them? I figure by the time that day comes, the kids will be completely unfamiliar with the concept of "paper book."

I find GPS necessary for Southern California, especially when I'm not quite sure where I'm going. If I miss a turn, it tells me how to correct and I don't have to pull over in a strange and dubious neighborhood to figure out where I am and where I went wrong.
 
#13
GPS does make travel more efficient and enjoyable, particularly the modern ones with all the information built in. When I go on a BJ trip I program in the coordinates of all the stores I'm planning on visiting. It saves time/EV and helps me keep a trip on schedule because on those kinds of trips I have no idea how long I am going to be staying in any one store. There may be nothing worth playing, I may not be allowed to play, or there may be something so good there is no point in going anywhere else. But the proximity of other stores makes a difference in that decision.
 

aslan

Well-Known Member
#14
Gamblor said:
I like to befuddle and tell the younger generations crazy tales of growing up back in the olden caveman days. When we had to use maps and ask for directions to get from place to place. Where we had to go to the library and look up information. Where we had to put in coins into these crazy phone machines to make phone calls. Where we had to actually go outside to socialize and play with other kids. Where we went to record stores and had to buy crazy plastic contraptions to listen to music. They think I'm so crazy old man who must have lived on another planet.
Right on both counts! (from their perspective)

Don't throw those plastic contraptions away... phonographs are coming back! I still have mine... plastic and phono... all I need is a needle. Do they still sell them? :confused: :laugh:
 

jaygruden

Well-Known Member
#15
Thunder said:
I have never used a GPS not will I ever as I refuse to take part in the dumbing down of America that has left us dependent on technology. (I must be very old fashioned because I still carry AAA maps in my car on the rare occasions that I do get lost.) Not to mention GPS's are often very wrong in the directions that they give.

This is what they said about a compass when it was first invented. As someone who spent a lot of time out in the wilderness as a kid, I can tell you that when your instincts tell you something different than the compass, you always trust the compass. There was a time when that was considered "new technology" and mistrusted. Even today, you can buy a cheap compass or an expensive one that has a much less margin for error. The same is true with GPS. The ones that the military has are always right, the ones you find on the shelf at Wal-Mart will make a lot of errors.
 

aslan

Well-Known Member
#16
Thunder said:
21, you shouldn't be ragging on my generation ;) I know members of your generation who are very intelligent but who are lucky that they don't have weak bladders. I say this because a turtle could find their to a bathroom faster than them even with sign postings less than 5 feet away ;) Heaven help them if they did have to find a restroom quickly :p (I know I'm going to catch hell for this :laugh:)

P.S. It's more a woman thing. GPS's are like security blankets for them. I have never used a GPS not will I ever as I refuse to take part in the dumbing down of America that has left us dependent on technology. (I must be very old fashioned because I still carry AAA maps in my car on the rare occasions that I do get lost.) Not to mention GPS's are often very wrong in the directions that they give.
What did you think of your parents or grandparents when they thought that 30 cents for a hamburger deluxe and 10 cents for a coke was too much? What did you think of them when they said you should wait until Kids Day for the baseball game so you could sit in the bleachers for 50 cents instead of a dollar? What did you think of them when they told you they rode in a horse and buggy, never had a TV set (they weren't invented yet), stood around a radio four feet high and two feet deep listening to the heavyweight championship fight, and air conditioned the house by opening every window and turning on several large electric fans? Remember those fly strips that hung all over the place in hot summer when all the windows were open? HA!
 
#17
jaygruden said:
This is what they said about a compass when it was first invented. As someone who spent a lot of time out in the wilderness as a kid, I can tell you that when your instincts tell you something different than the compass, you always trust the compass. There was a time when that was considered "new technology" and mistrusted. Even today, you can buy a cheap compass or an expensive one that has a much less margin for error. The same is true with GPS. The ones that the military has are always right, the ones you find on the shelf at Wal-Mart will make a lot of errors.
I don't agree- the Garmins I have use technology as good as anything. At least in terms of acquiring and processing a signal. Most of the GPS problems I've had have been due to buildings or other things that will block the satellite signal, and if you're not getting the information there's nothing any GPS can do.
 

21forme

Well-Known Member
#18
When a delivery man calls me and says his GPS can't find my street, I know it's a Garmin.

I've had problems with my TomTom being taken in circles in one nearby town.

Other than that a GPS is very handy, though I usually check out my route on Google maps, first.
 

Gamblor

Well-Known Member
#19
One time I was just being lazy driving back from CT to NJ and followed the GPS blindly. Instead of taking me across the GW bridge (no toll in this direction) it sent me through the outer boroughs and across the Verazzano - $16 tolls or whatever it costs to get across that bridge! :mad::flame::laugh:
 

aslan

Well-Known Member
#20
Gamblor said:
One time I was just being lazy driving back from CT to NJ and followed the GPS blindly. Instead of taking me across the GW bridge (no toll in this direction) it sent me through the outer boroughs and across the Verazzano - $16 tolls or whatever it costs to get across that bridge! :mad::flame::laugh:
Right. One should not disengage one's brain just because they have a new technologically-advanced device. Like when the restaurant's computer system says you owe them $895.00 for your grilled cheese and fries-- who pays without questioning the computer's math? Heck, it's just two decimal places off! :laugh:
 
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