With all the new gadgets and modern technology in our pockets and bags, it is great to see that lots of people, including myself, still use ordinary paper maps to find there ways through the city.
It’s been proven that new technology is actually slowing us down. DVD takes 30 seconds, 1sec for a VHS, for example. Or imagine you have to look up a map on your iPad of the Berlin S/U-Bahn. You’ll still be wondering how to get online, and I’m sitting in the hotel writing a blog post.
Comments
DVDs may take 30 seconds to start (these days it’s more like 5min because Hollywood insists on non-skippable obnoxiousness), but VHS actually takes longer – because you forgot to rewind the thing last time you watched it. And you get subtitles and multiple languages- And you can watch the thing 20 years later.
Paper maps are great unless it’s windy. Or you’re driving alone. Or they’re out of date. Modern tech gives me OpenStreetMap: I can fix the map myself. It gives me WikiTravel. And so on.
Subway schedules? Suppose you’re not already in a subway station, but someplace random. Find nearest bus station, find correct underground station from printed schedule sprinkled with random little ‘U’ characters, try to guess which bus line may or may not get you closest to the destination. Lots of fun.
And so on.
Conclusion: No, I won’t want to go back to the old ways.
NB: *their way.