Florida Shooters Network

everyoone should learn how to read a map and oreint themselves accordingly. its sad that people don't know which way north is. if florida runs roughly north to south, then I4 runs northeast to southwest. so if you oreint yourself according to I4, you can roughly find north.

I just avoid I-4 altogether.

tector wrote:Does using GPS make you navigationally stupider?

As a GPS user (professionally) for several years now, I must say... NO.
I can still tell direction of travel, follow road signs, look for landmarks, find my own detours through unfamaliar cities and read a map.

What I can tell you is:
A) GPS's don't always take you the best/shortest/quickest way.
B) GPS's can & will plot a different route halfway through your trip, depending on where you are when you enter your destination.
C) GPS's are no substitute for common sense navigation.
D) GPS's will generally get you (at least close to) where you are headed.

armedinpasco wrote:

tector wrote:Does using GPS make you navigationally stupider?

As a GPS user (professionally) for several years now, I must say... NO.
I can still tell direction of travel, follow road signs, look for landmarks, find my own detours through unfamaliar cities and read a map.

Would same be true if you had grown up using GPS extensively?

Consider the users of the modern cash register. They can't do anywhere near the SIMPLE math that people running registers used to do. That could mean that register jobs have just been defined downward in recent decades (i.e. people who would not have been formerly considered register material are now allowed to work there), or it could mean people of roughly the same intellectual percentile have just lost the ability to do simple math through atrophy (the Idiocracy theory).

a simple test :

if you use your GSP as a following device, I think on mine its called 3D version, meaning it tells you turn left whatever, it looks like you are flying above the car or following the road correctly, like this .
if you simply set it to North Up and try and navigate using it as a map over view, if you can't figure out which way to turn, say, east when heading south, then you rely on your GPS too much.

North up view
.

.
and if you need one that has lane assist, your too stupid to drive pull over and step out into traffic, there have been marking road sign telling you where to go since people started driving
.

Orienteering.
The use of maps, compass, objects and natural terrain.
A great hobby and useful skill.
And a good way to meet new people who are as lost as you are.

I agree. I keep telling my daughter "learn to navigate by using the end of your nose". She would get lost inside of a paper bag - gets it from her mother.

I do use a GPS when I'm hunting unfamiliar territory. I've never needed it to get back to the truck yet, but I keep it running just in case. I know that when it gets dark, deer trails start to all look alike.

I have found that People are just stupid, GPS or NOT when they get in their car. Most expect their cars to drive them to their destinations, while they nap or text.

I receive calls all the time from people WITH GPS units that still have no idea where they are, and want directions or help. I ask them what their GPS is saying (Because I can hear it screaming in the background) and they say, "Oh, I don't know" ...... I want to hang up on them, but can't... Instead, I have to give them a tutorial on how to use their GPS.

You can't imagine how many people leave their house on a trip and make no preparations or have any idea how they are going to get to their destination. They only know that they left point A and want to get to point B, yet failed to figure out anything in between.

My nominal job title is fleet manager of a company that runs 70 trucks or so. This mostly means I am the head mechanic and as such I have to go on or dispatch service and tire repair calls to the trucks where ever they happen to be. When I started doing this job none of our drivers had GPS units, and could almost always tell me how to get to thier location. Now they all have GPS and don't know where they are half or more of the time. Just today a broke down driver had to walk back to a toll booth he had past just before he had a tire failure so he could find out what toll road he was on. Yep, they will dumb you down if you let them.

To use a gun analogy.

Lasers, scopes and red dots can make you more precise and are more efficient, but if you don't know how to fall back on iron sights and get along without them, then you really can't shoot.

GPS is a wonderful convenience, but if you can't manage without it, you can't actually navigate.

GPS is the greatest automobile accessory that ever hit the planet for ME.
I'll admit ....I was born directionally challenged.
I have an absolute lack of an internal compass.
Driving around with my wife, amazes me, she always has a handle on what direction we are heading, her internal compass works.
Mine does not exist at all.
Thank you Garmin!!!!

I hate those devices. I learned to read a map an do terrain association in Ranger School. I always know where I am an can figure out where to go with a little information. To me they're a crutch protecting people from the minimal work it takes to know where you are.

tector wrote:I just avoid I-4 altogether.

I-4 can be an absolute P.O.S. I avoid it like the plague.

Ever followed someone somewhere, through a bunch of turns, and had to look at map to get out? I know I have. GPS would do about the same thing.

That said, a GPS would be a wonderful device. I have absolutely no sense of direction whatsoever. If it's overcast or the sun's down, I'm screwed. I have the Google app on my iphone, but I don't use it for navigation much.

DAMN!!..now,along with everything else,I find that Im Navigationally Deformed...crap..

I think Tector hit it on the head with the cash register analogy. If you can't make change without the register telling you how much then you rely to much on technology and will be screwed without it. Kinda like seat of the pants flying. Good pilots can tell their orientation (as long as they have visual) without instrumentation. Hell what next, an electronic device to tell a dude on a motorcycle how much lean/direction he needs in a turn? (yeah - I heard about the self parking cars) I like to actually know where I am without having to rely on gps entirely.

I ran into this decades ago on the sea and in the air as navigation instruments got more complicated. Can't tell you over the years how many people screwed themselves when they had electrical system failures and they couldn't navigate by simple compass correcting for wind or tide currents or magnetic variations.

Hell most people don't even have a good mechanical compass on board yet alone one thats been compensated in the last 10 years.

The good news is when the EMP pulse hits, most people won't be able to find their way home and their stuff is up for grabs.

As a surveyor i can tell ya gps is great for what is was design for. Bombs.

my job requires that i visit at least 20 new residential locations every week, all residential, frequently in convulated street configurations. GPS eliminates the time needed to pull over, get out the map and find the address. i am able to use the map, just choose not to. technology is your friend. i use it but am not dependent upon it. glennnnn