I often get food delivery people asking if I know where X number apartment is in my building when I’m out walking my dogs. Man, I don’t fucking even remember my own number half the time. All I can say that if you’re looking for 1 but you’re way the fuck over by 120, you are on the exact opposite side of the complex that you need to be.
One day I was walking about.
Someone said “Excuse me, could you tell me where is (random street)?”
I was like “That sounds familiar, hold on a second.”
Looked it up from the map on my phone.
It’s literally the next street over.
It was about that time I decided people perhaps shouldn’t ask me directions if they value their time.I think that often. Turns out, a lot of people are incapable of looking up information on the internet. So me spending 2 minutes searching it saves someone hours, somehow.
I’m definitely not with majority on this. Every city I’ve lived in, I can navigate decently well by major streets, highways, landmarks, etc. I think it came with the fact that I moved around so much growing up. I always want to feel like I know the area, so I’ll study a map for a couple hours whenever I first move in.
I’m not afraid to confess that I’ve given completely fabricated directions out of pure embarrassment.
“Yes, yes, just continue straight in that direction for a while and then turn left twice and you are there!”
Those poor souls…
I struggle with spatial awareness and memory and why wouldn’t I use the amazing achievement that is ubiquitously available GPS service and directions?
Sorry I don’t get out much.
Before we had stuff like Google Maps, or any digital navigation service really, nobody could then, either.
Even when asking someone for directions to get to where they live you get the wrong number of stoplights, turns, and so on. Street-names are also a gamble because maybe they (mis)remember that the street they commute on changed four years ago. I would wager that most folks are just not “wired” for this sort of task, and is why (shipping) pilots, trackers, and trail-guides are a thing.
I was stopped on the way to work and asked where a particular street was. I had no idea.
I saw it a few minutes later. I had crossed it every day for 20 years.
I feel dumb whenever people are telling me road names, of even major roads. Like, I know the turns to take to get to a couple regular places, who’s got the time to check out the street sign while watching traffic/turning?
You don’t hear the road names when your GPS tells you where to turn? I’m shocked by how many people are unfamiliar with major roads in their city. I’ve met people who couldn’t even tell me what crossroads they lived at. To me, part of learning to drive meant making a note of the road names near me so I was familiar with locations based on road names.
I’m not old either, I’m in my early 20s.
Which savage listens to the gps? Turning off the sound is the first thing I do. Although I have been considering getting a snoop dogg voiced gps or maybe Douglas Hedley (the philosophy professor from Cunk).
My GPS stays silent. Glancing at the map is less distracting for me.
Doesn’t even need to be directions.
“You know, [place], over in [major part of city]?”
“Oh yeah, haha, [major part of city]. (Discretely take out phone because I have no idea where anything is in this city that I have lived in for 20 years)”
That’s a bit sad, honestly.
True.
top tip: explore. it’s pretty fun to purposefully take wrong turns and just learn what’s out there just out of eyesight
Note:don’t do this if you’re a minority compared to your cities population
Played a keep the flow, right turn on red game in San Francisco… made every right turn on every red I got. So many beautiful unique homes abound!
i can give directions very easily. i simply read them off of my phone
Humans lose their sense of direction when they’re driving. Spend time in a walkable city, you’ll learn the names of all the streets and squares.
People never get a sense of direction of they never train it. Regardless of mode of transportation or how you navigate or determine position.
I feel inclined to agree, since i walk my city for +30 years and act like the kitty irl
Oh, are we the next generation of Boomers imagining bad directions we gave before smartphones solved that issue almost completely?
not really sure I follow what you’re trying to say, but in my experience it’s pretty common for directions to come up in casual conversation. Chatting about traffic and ways to get around it is pretty top tier smalltalk for me because it’s actually helpful to know and isn’t just the copy-paste “how’s your day” “good, yours?” “good.”
“Easy, just go down to the park where they have the pumpkin festival in summer, then turn right. At the greengrocer’s, well, where it used to be, I think they built something else there now? Anyway, cross the street there, and right before you reach Maggie’s yard, say hello to her, will you? you’ll have to go down to that other place, I forgot the name but they have the best chocolate cake you’ve ever tasted…”
Grandma please, just tell me the address!
What’s really fun is asking someone like that directions in an emergency. You’ll get the same winding explanation, but in triplicate, all at once, since the fastest route is one of those depending on a half-dozen seemingly unrelated factors.
Relevant music video
