GPS users becoming too reliant on the technology

_Tombstone_

Have we become too reliant on GPS? This satellite expert thinks so.

http://www.vox.com/2016/4/10/11379698/gps-navigation-brain-problems

my3cents

I think this will become a problem for a whole generation. I think GPS is fine provided you learn how to use a map and compass first, just like we should be learning to write before we lean to use a word processor or learn to add, subtract, multiply and decide before we learn to use a calculator.

I go a step further and won't use power tools until I have learned how to do the job with hand tools. I wouldn't not use a bench saw to rip down a 8x4 sheet of plywood but I also know I can make a fair job of it with a handsaw. If I could I learn first how to make the handsaw but you have to draw the line somewhere

aaakev

Yeah i definitely think so, i know people that went on long hikes and didn't know how tonuse a map and compass which i thought wqs pretty silly. They were depending on a garman gps.

When we used to hike quite a bit we would study the map and plan our route there first. Great skill to have that not a lot of younger people would have

my3cents

One techie thing I think may be worth doing pre SHTF is printing out your up to date local aerial photographs include aerial photographs of anywhere you are considering bugging out.

pre GPS the best orienteering cheat was a good aerial photograph.

Sh1tbag OToole

Most people don't even use a real GPS, just a well worn smartphone with a dodgy battery running all sorts of spyware. They might not even be familiar with the name 'GPS', instead preferring the name 'Google Maps(tm)'. Standalone GPS receivers just ain't cool anymore. Planning a route in advance, plotting waypoints? Aint nobody got time for that. Saving maps to the phone? Pfft, you have unlimited data don't you? Just rely on the cloud. Uncle GOOG will sort all your problems if you get lost.

my3cents

bedlam wrote: »

You could also contribute to OpenStreetMap using both local knowledge and bing satellite imagery to improve the areas you are interested in with as much detail as possible. Then print them out.

Just be sure to mark your BOL on the map so we all know where to go in a SHTF situation

But bring your wellies if you are relying on those and looking for me For some strange reason the road and river are transposed so we have a river on the hill above us and a road in the bottom of the valley on the map.

I think it all goes to prove that the mappers are relying on aerial photographs and on all the ones of this area I have ever seen the road really does look like a river and the river looks like a road.

So cautionary tale there, aerial photographs are good but need careful interpretation.

lostboy75

Sh1tbag OToole wrote: »

Most people don't even use a real GPS,

WARNING, THREAD HIJACKING IN PROGRESS.

Mr. S. O'Toole :-), you or others might be able to give some advice here. I am interested in getting a decent stand alone GPS unit. Would not need to be fancy, just the ability to locate required co-ordinates on the ground, and the reverse, to record some co-ordinates. The record option could just be me writing them on paper, or a map. In an ideal world I would love a Trimble GIS unit, but they are thousands even without the software. What options are out there that are a trusted option.

ShadowFox

my3cents wrote: »

I think this will become a problem for a whole generation. I think GPS is fine provided you learn how to use a map and compass first, just like we should be learning to write before we lean to use a word processor or learn to add, subtract, multiply and decide before we learn to use a calculator.

I go a step further and won't use power tools until I have learned how to do the job with hand tools. I wouldn't not use a bench saw to rip down a 8x4 sheet of plywood but I also know I can make a fair job of it with a handsaw. If I could I learn first how to make the handsaw but you have to draw the line somewhere

I agree totally I've gone back to hand tools and teaching my kids to use them too it takes a bit longer but much more satisfying

schtinggg

We (quite literally) found a humvee full of Americans who's gps was out.
I have to agree that gps is a fantastic compliment to your kit, but at the end of a day; we got them back to their people with no more than a map, compass & stopwatch.
Related to this is the amount of motorists clogging up crossroads because they can't follow a map and depend too much on their phones/tom toms or whatever. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a technophobe, but I believe you should have more than one source of info when it comes to navigating.

my3cents

I can't remember which channel it was on but this reminds me of that program that featured a place where the gap between two houses is two narrow for lorries yet sat navs keep sending the lorries down there and the lorries keep getting stuck.

In this case you'd think the lorry driver would have the sense to realise that the lorry was too wide and use his own judgement rather than blindly believing the sat nav?