DEAR Jasminda,

My mum says I rely too much on Google Maps when I drive and that I should be able to look up where I’m going before I leave and remember the way there.

Why would I do this?

Helen F.

Dear Helen,

I’m going to be showing my age here, but when I first got my driver’s licence, cars contained a book of maps called Gregory’s Street Directory.

If we had to travel somewhere new, we would try to memorise the directions beforehand because otherwise we’d be forced to rely on a passenger yelling out directions with the Gregory’s balanced on their lap.

This was a degree-level skill involving map coordinates, trouble-shooting, frantic page turning as the street suddenly came to an abrupt halt and had to be linked to a not-necessarily sequential page and frequent arguments when despite everyone’s best efforts you ended up lost.

If you had to travel alone, you’d be doing all of this on your own lap while trying to stay on the road.

I’m with you, Helen. Rely on Google Maps all you want.

I think it’s much safer than the alternative. Sometimes I leave it on just for the calming female voice navigation system.

The way she calmly re-routes instead of throwing the Gregory’s at you and demanding to be let out of the car because you’re in a back lane at midnight with no hope of ever reaching your destination, as was the case before the days of GPS data.

Carpe diem,
Jasminda.