Don’t Use GPS In New York State This Week

Ready for a road trip? Time to go old school! The spring is here and that means the flowers are starting to bloom and the trees are opening up and hopefully you are not too lost in technology to notice.

There are few things as frustrating as getting lost when you are driving. It is even worse if you are running late! Without a GPS, or e-map, you may never find that location. The technology we have sure has made being a delivery person much easier. However, that convenience, according to some, comes with a hidden cost.

There are some reports that indicate that using or relying on a GPS too often can actually be harmful to your brain and it may be time to break out the atlas or folding map!

In a report on TheStar.com:

“We did spatial memory tests and found that degradation was correlated to GPS frequency,” said Véronique Bohbot, a scientist at the Douglas Research Centre and a professor of psychiatry at McGill University. “There was a difference between people who use GPS every day for every trip and the people who didn’t use GPS at all or just occasionally, say, once a month.”

One of my favorite memories from being a kid on a road trip with mom and dad was our family trips to the Adirondacks. My father was a school teacher and when summer vacation hit, we hit the road. Dad had me as his "navigator" and I would follow the route that he had highlighted on the map/trick tic that we got from AAA before the trip. It sounds like we all may want to mix in that nostalgia to keep the memories alive!