Cell phones have made it so that no one remembers phone numbers anymore, and GPS has made it so we’re useless without maps.
There’s a new poll out on “navigation skills,” and only 16% of people are confident they’re “excellent” navigators without turn-by-turn GPS directions.
37% of people say they’d be “good”, 27% say they’re just “fair” at navigating on their own, 10% admit they’re “poor”, and 7% know they’re “terrible” without GPS.
GPS is most helpful when you’re driving in areas you’re not familiar with, but even though 87% of people say they know their own community pretty well, 14% “usually” or “always” leave their GPS on anyway.
Here are a few other stats from the poll . . .
1. 72% of people claim they’re “very good” at reading physical or digital maps.
2. 68% would say their “sense of direction” is very good.
3. 63% say they can usually remember a new route after having traveled it once.
4. 61% say they’re very good at giving directions.
5. 59% say they “enjoy reading maps.”
6. 51% say they “don’t enjoy giving directions.”
7. 45% say they don’t remember routes very well if riding as a passenger in a car. (It’s amazing how much of a difference it makes to actually DRIVE it.)
8. 28% say they don’t have a very good “mental map” of their environment.
(YouGov)