Well, I don't know about the rest of the world, but considering all the hunters and hikers who go out to the backcountry where there isn't good cell service, all the current and ex-military types (like myself) that were trained extensively on how to use a map, all the young people who are currently turning away from technology as the panacea for everything, I think there are still plenty of us who can read a map (even if its less than before). Certainly, in the age of cars and planes, there are still people who ride horses - just a lot less of them.
You aren't the last one. I can read a map of the road and a chart of sea. Most sailors today are lost without chartplotter and autopilot. What will they do without power? Fortunately I'm air powered. 😉
I’m 74 now and trained as a navigator in my youth before, soon afterwards, changing my career. I recently chatted with a young naval officer and I couldn’t help remarking that, although I’m lost amongst the technology on the modern ship’s bridge, he’d want me in his lifeboat as I’d probably be the only one aboard who knew how to handle a sextant - and he agreed!
You are right about the different way the map and the GPS show you location. I do not like feeling like I’m in a tunnel but don’t know the big picture. I always orient myself, and people say they have no idea where north is, as if it’s useless knowledge. As if being critical of my knowledge. I liked what you said about position vs situational awareness. You should see what they’ve done in malls when you want a map, it’s really similar to those directions, as if you are in an underground tunnel. Makes me feel trapped. There is also some suspicion that I’m not being given the correct and whole picture, and that some person or organization doesn’t want me to know the real shape of reality. One of these days it will matter in some situation, when one of us map readers will be useful. Starting with helping friends escape Ikea before they freak out completely.
I have a map reading Boy Scout 78 year old husband. Yesterday we had to be somewhere despite a fatal crash on our one and only motorway which was then closed both ways for 12 hours. Siri was doing her best but hubby went his own way at nearly every turn to get around the mess. I am sure Siri needed a Bex and a lie down at the end of that day.
This is brilliant, thank you! I took a long time to move from maps to gps. GPS is definitely more convenient but i do like to know where I’m going and where I’ve come from. Situational awareness is everything, IMO. I feel sorry for the younger generation who don’t have this skill.
This part of your essay says it all: ‘They knew their position. They didn’t know where they were.’ I like to know where I am, and to rely on my own common sense! Using a map these days is a bit of a luxury, but I love to open my old book and see the whole of my country and its various grades of roads squiggling from coast to coast across the map like lifeblood.
I love my phone for direct directions to something close by, but we love our atlas and use it on driving trips. It shows the big picture, including nearby towns and attractions of interest.
As a kid, my dad would drive us to go hiking in the Dales or Lake District at weekends, or drive to go on holiday - Scotland, Cornwall, West Wales. I'd always have to be navigator - the big road atlas, more detailed OS area maps, a compass. I loved it 'cos I got to sit up front with my dad. Then I'd have to be navigator for all our hikes.
It was my job to plan our route (I'm sure he'd already done that!) and then navigate the entire journey. He'd often take a wrong turn. Then I'd have to plot a new course to get us back on track or find a new route. Wrong turns were always 'by accident'. Took me a long while to figure out he was just doing it to test me and improve my map reading and navigation skills. But I grew to love those challenges!
He instilled in me a love of maps, reading the landscape, and navigating. I credit him with giving me a love of hiking and landscape, which led to a geography degree and lifelong love of landscape and nature.
Old Grey Thinker: You and I are close to the same age. As a teenager sailing and in my early days of oceanography, I learned celestial nav and chart+compass coastal piloting. Got fairly proficient if I do say so myself. This was pre-GPS, or at least before it was available to civilians. On some vessels there was LORAN, but once you were far enough offshore LORAN didn't work. For coastal piloting (for me at least) it was paper chart, two triangles, compass, wristwatch, speedo, and depth sounder. Night or day I never had trouble getting where I needed to go, safely. Coastal piloting with chart/compass requires a certain level of "situational awareness." Even offshore getting a celestial fix requires starting with an assumed position (star fix) or advancing a LOP via DR for sun shots (typically morning, LAN, afternoon). IMHO, this is what is lost if you completely rely on GPS/Google Maps etc.
Getting lost, on skateboards and bicycles in the early 1970s, cars in the 80s ... It gave me a great sense of place. Thanks to your essay I understand now that I was building models no phone or nav could do. It was old school recon. And I still love paper maps and atlases for the sense of 'place' they offer me. Beautiful writing.
Well, I don't know about the rest of the world, but considering all the hunters and hikers who go out to the backcountry where there isn't good cell service, all the current and ex-military types (like myself) that were trained extensively on how to use a map, all the young people who are currently turning away from technology as the panacea for everything, I think there are still plenty of us who can read a map (even if its less than before). Certainly, in the age of cars and planes, there are still people who ride horses - just a lot less of them.
I‘m still using maps too, even on travels. I don’t like to depend too much on my phone.
You aren't the last one. I can read a map of the road and a chart of sea. Most sailors today are lost without chartplotter and autopilot. What will they do without power? Fortunately I'm air powered. 😉
I’m 74 now and trained as a navigator in my youth before, soon afterwards, changing my career. I recently chatted with a young naval officer and I couldn’t help remarking that, although I’m lost amongst the technology on the modern ship’s bridge, he’d want me in his lifeboat as I’d probably be the only one aboard who knew how to handle a sextant - and he agreed!
No I still like to map out any thing over an hours drive. We are out here, we just stay silent. Stealthy and knowing where we are.
You are right about the different way the map and the GPS show you location. I do not like feeling like I’m in a tunnel but don’t know the big picture. I always orient myself, and people say they have no idea where north is, as if it’s useless knowledge. As if being critical of my knowledge. I liked what you said about position vs situational awareness. You should see what they’ve done in malls when you want a map, it’s really similar to those directions, as if you are in an underground tunnel. Makes me feel trapped. There is also some suspicion that I’m not being given the correct and whole picture, and that some person or organization doesn’t want me to know the real shape of reality. One of these days it will matter in some situation, when one of us map readers will be useful. Starting with helping friends escape Ikea before they freak out completely.
Atlases are things of joy and beauty that give you a sense of the landscape and context and proximity of a place to others. Love this.
I have a map reading Boy Scout 78 year old husband. Yesterday we had to be somewhere despite a fatal crash on our one and only motorway which was then closed both ways for 12 hours. Siri was doing her best but hubby went his own way at nearly every turn to get around the mess. I am sure Siri needed a Bex and a lie down at the end of that day.
This is brilliant, thank you! I took a long time to move from maps to gps. GPS is definitely more convenient but i do like to know where I’m going and where I’ve come from. Situational awareness is everything, IMO. I feel sorry for the younger generation who don’t have this skill.
This part of your essay says it all: ‘They knew their position. They didn’t know where they were.’ I like to know where I am, and to rely on my own common sense! Using a map these days is a bit of a luxury, but I love to open my old book and see the whole of my country and its various grades of roads squiggling from coast to coast across the map like lifeblood.
I love my phone for direct directions to something close by, but we love our atlas and use it on driving trips. It shows the big picture, including nearby towns and attractions of interest.
I love maps and globes. They show you the bigger picture so easily. I also love nautical charts you can roll out.
I can still read a map and enjoy looking at an OS map or an atlas. I trained as a surveyor it's second nature.
As a kid, my dad would drive us to go hiking in the Dales or Lake District at weekends, or drive to go on holiday - Scotland, Cornwall, West Wales. I'd always have to be navigator - the big road atlas, more detailed OS area maps, a compass. I loved it 'cos I got to sit up front with my dad. Then I'd have to be navigator for all our hikes.
It was my job to plan our route (I'm sure he'd already done that!) and then navigate the entire journey. He'd often take a wrong turn. Then I'd have to plot a new course to get us back on track or find a new route. Wrong turns were always 'by accident'. Took me a long while to figure out he was just doing it to test me and improve my map reading and navigation skills. But I grew to love those challenges!
He instilled in me a love of maps, reading the landscape, and navigating. I credit him with giving me a love of hiking and landscape, which led to a geography degree and lifelong love of landscape and nature.
Old Grey Thinker: You and I are close to the same age. As a teenager sailing and in my early days of oceanography, I learned celestial nav and chart+compass coastal piloting. Got fairly proficient if I do say so myself. This was pre-GPS, or at least before it was available to civilians. On some vessels there was LORAN, but once you were far enough offshore LORAN didn't work. For coastal piloting (for me at least) it was paper chart, two triangles, compass, wristwatch, speedo, and depth sounder. Night or day I never had trouble getting where I needed to go, safely. Coastal piloting with chart/compass requires a certain level of "situational awareness." Even offshore getting a celestial fix requires starting with an assumed position (star fix) or advancing a LOP via DR for sun shots (typically morning, LAN, afternoon). IMHO, this is what is lost if you completely rely on GPS/Google Maps etc.
I enjoy studying maps as if I will someday find myself in central Russia and need to know my way around Torzhok. Call me Bond, but not that Bond.
You will enjoy the new WW2 movie Pressure. Highly recommend
Getting lost, on skateboards and bicycles in the early 1970s, cars in the 80s ... It gave me a great sense of place. Thanks to your essay I understand now that I was building models no phone or nav could do. It was old school recon. And I still love paper maps and atlases for the sense of 'place' they offer me. Beautiful writing.