FOLLOWING THE ARROW
For millions of people, a small arrow on a phone screen has replaced the habit of asking for directions. Drivers rely on navigation apps on the way to work, and tourists depend on them to explore new cities. According to recent surveys, about 80% of smartphone owners open such an app at least once a week. Some switch it on even for a short walk to a friend's house or to the supermarket in their own neighborhood. Today, hardly any journey begins without one.(lines 1–5)
Many users think that an app which always shows them the way will also teach them the way. In fact, the opposite is true. People who walk through a new town with their eyes on a screen often cannot say what they passed. They do not remember the street names, and they could not describe a single shop along the route. "Your attention goes to the arrow, not to the buildings, the signs or the turns," explains geographer Anna Kessler. "Yet these are exactly the details that your brain uses to build a map of a place. Without them, the map is never built, and you stay dependent on your phone."(lines 6–12)
This idea has also been tested. Two groups of adults were invited to walk from a train station to a museum in a city they did not know. The first group was guided by a navigation app, and the second was given only a paper map. Two days later, each participant was asked to draw the route from memory on a blank sheet of paper, so that the researchers could measure how much of the way he or she still remembered. Those who had used the paper map produced far more accurate drawings than the app users.(lines 13–18)
Does this mean that we should delete our navigation apps? Not at all, Kessler says, but we should rely on them less. "Before you set off to a place in your own town, take a minute to study the map and plan your route in your head," she suggests. "Then keep the phone in your pocket, and use the app only to find places that you really can't find on your own. You will soon know your town better and feel more confident wherever you go."(lines 19–23)