Relying on Google Maps

I visited a friend in their home city of Atlanta. While we were there, he drove me around the city showing me his favorite spots, but every time we’d leave or return to his house, he pulled out his phone and typed the address into Google Maps. The first couple times, I didn’t say anything, but after a day or so, I finally began to question it.

I’ve been driving around Richmond, my home town, for a while now, and I’ve managed to memorize most of the routes near my house. If I need to get somewhere, I tend to just go off my own mental map, so I asked my friend why he uses Google Maps. His response: he never took the time to memorize any directions around his house/city. This is entirely logical in his mind because he’ll always have his phone on him. If Google is going to “memorize” the directions to any place he needs to go then why does he need to do so? Google tracks us anyways, it seems, so he might as well use it to his advantage. In his mind, he is rationally ignorant on directions and his local map.

This could have some downsides. He might not always have service or his phone might die. He always keeps a charger in his car, though, and if he really needs to, he can download maps to his phone. Constantly using Google Maps, especially in a big city, even has its perks; if an accident or traffic occurs, the app will tell him an alternate route to get around faster. That’s something his own knowledge couldn’t tell him. Instead of spending time learning the roads near him, he has the mental capacity to focus on something else. Rational ignorance determines why my friend uses Google Maps instead of memorizing the roads for himself.