3 ms·

I'd say map reading isn't gone yet, but figuring out where the heck you are on the map is (and good riddance). Back before GPS, when thoroughly lost, you had t

I'd say map reading isn't gone yet, but figuring out where the heck you are on the map is (and good riddance). Back before GPS, when thoroughly lost, you had to take the next intersection and find it in the road/coordinate reference listing that was hopefully on the back of the map. Often while the driver (divided responsibility: Driver and Navigator) kept driving. Also counting off distance to a possibly unmarked turn and so on. I still read maps. Google Maps having become increasingly bloated and user hostile on Android, frequently I just pull up the OSM-based map that the Strava app displays. So handy for planning your next move when cycling in an unfamiliar area.

soco 3y ago
Is this "losing the capability" real or just a piece of nostalgia? Young people won't know how to use a rotary phone, is this something to miss today? Is this something to not be able to learn if needed? Otherwise when you say "navigator" I remember back in the day I was handling the city map exactly like Google Maps reorients it when you take turns, and figuring out the correct lanes by comparing the next-next map turn with the lane signs... not an easy task but fun.
- digging 3y ago
  I think map reading is more useful than handling a specific form of a specific technology. It's hard to imagine a situation where a rotary phone would ever be useful - they don't work on their own, but require infrastructure as well. A map however is more or less timeless and can be used even if you end up somewhere with nothing else.
  - soco 3y ago
    Point taken, the metaphor was not very appropriate (but again which metaphor is). Again to the argument: is it worth complaining people have lost the practice (I won't say "ability") of reading maps, an obsolete (as of today!) form of orientation? Did anything atrophy making them unable to (re)learn it when needed again? Because it's not like anyone was born with map-reading skills, or had a special gene for it, so I'd say whenever we'll need paper maps again we will handle it again just as well.

soco 3y ago

Is this "losing the capability" real or just a piece of nostalgia? Young people won't know how to use a rotary phone, is this something to miss today? Is this something to not be able to learn if needed? Otherwise when you say "navigator" I remember back in the day I was handling the city map exactly like Google Maps reorients it when you take turns, and figuring out the correct lanes by comparing the next-next map turn with the lane signs... not an easy task but fun.

digging 3y ago
I think map reading is more useful than handling a specific form of a specific technology. It's hard to imagine a situation where a rotary phone would ever be useful - they don't work on their own, but require infrastructure as well. A map however is more or less timeless and can be used even if you end up somewhere with nothing else.
- soco 3y ago
  Point taken, the metaphor was not very appropriate (but again which metaphor is). Again to the argument: is it worth complaining people have lost the practice (I won't say "ability") of reading maps, an obsolete (as of today!) form of orientation? Did anything atrophy making them unable to (re)learn it when needed again? Because it's not like anyone was born with map-reading skills, or had a special gene for it, so I'd say whenever we'll need paper maps again we will handle it again just as well.