I use navigation to go to the grocery store.

Oh, are we the next generation of Boomers imagining bad directions we gave before smartphones solved that issue almost completely?

I’ll give you directions, but you have to be comfortable with landmarks and slang names for various areas.

i can give directions very easily. i simply read them off of my phone

Before we had stuff like Google Maps, or any digital navigation service really, nobody could then, either.

Even when asking someone for directions to get to where they live you get the wrong number of stoplights, turns, and so on. Street-names are also a gamble because maybe they (mis)remember that the street they commute on changed four years ago. I would wager that most folks are just not “wired” for this sort of task, and is why (shipping) pilots, trackers, and trail-guides are a thing.

I struggle with spatial awareness and memory and why wouldn’t I use the amazing achievement that is ubiquitously available GPS service and directions?

I’m definitely not with majority on this. Every city I’ve lived in, I can navigate decently well by major streets, highways, landmarks, etc. I think it came with the fact that I moved around so much growing up. I always want to feel like I know the area, so I’ll study a map for a couple hours whenever I first move in.

One day I was walking about.
Someone said “Excuse me, could you tell me where is (random street)?”
I was like “That sounds familiar, hold on a second.”
Looked it up from the map on my phone.
It’s literally the next street over.
It was about that time I decided people perhaps shouldn’t ask me directions if they value their time.

I don’t “live” in the city, I live in my house, and I only leave to go to college or work. So if want to know where my college or my work are, I’m your man. Otherwise…

It’s so funny, my kids split out exactly half and half, one half of them I could have driven to Miami before they realized we weren’t headed to school, and the other half, if I took a different route would scream “you are going the wrong way!”

I live in the suburbs outside Washington, DC. One evening, we were in Bowie, MD (east of DC) at a shopping center, and a woman asked us for directions to the Mormon Temple.

For those who are not familiar, the Mormon Temple is off the beltway north of DC. It’s 25 miles away, and right now - nearing midday - it’s showing a 34 minute drive. However, when this happened, it was the evening rush hour, so it was at least an hour away, probably closer to an hour and a half, honestly. It was a drive I wouldn’t want to make, if I could avoid it.

She didn’t believe us. My wife just headed into the store we’d been heading for. I tried to convince her some more, but eventually she just drove off to ask someone else. I wonder how that adventure ended for her.

The only thing I can figure for how she got so far off course: I think she started typing the address of the Mormon Temple (which is on Stoneybrook Drive in Kensington) into whatever map app she was using, and the app gave her a result on Stonybrook Drive in Bowie, and she went with it - the shopping center we were at is just off Stonybrook. Note they aren’t spelled the same, but I can understand overlooking that. Who knows where she started and how long she’d been driving already.

so relatable lmao

My friends and relatives couldn’t believe that I didn’t know the route to my school or home. Apparently, it’s something you should just know after years of taking those routes even as a passenger. I didn’t know that it wasn’t normal for your brain to be constantly preoccupied with thoughts and that you should just be able to focus on things and remember them. It sucks living in a shithole where people either dont know anything about mental disorders or dont care that you have one.