The GPS in Global Positioning System ought to stand for Geographically Pretty Stupid. Relying on GPS, even with its indisputable benefits, is making us a nation of geographic illiterates. Not that geography was a strong point for Americans.
We’ve all heard horror stories of the dismally low percentage of Americans who can find even Texas on a map. In my lectures on China and Taiwan, I cite data on how few Americans can locate either country, even as our nation has long had a security commitment to Taiwan in the event of a Chinese invasion. I ask students: “Do you think Americans will want to defend Taiwan when they can’t even find it on a map?” But let’s stick to the geographic confines of the United States of America.
And let me plead guilty. Last week, I drove a rental car from New York City to a small town in New Hampshire. I had no map in the car (our family vehicles have a travel atlas).
Like a geographically blind idiot, I counted solely on my hand-held gizmo (my phone and its Google Maps GPS) to get me out of Manhattan, northward onto the Hudson Parkway, and eventually into Connecticut, Massachusetts, Vermont and ultimately New Hampshire. All along, I had no idea where I was going, or even which state was next. I found myself pleasantly surprised to be in Vermont.
Once leaving New Hampshire, I was back in Vermont again, passing through beautiful rural environs, and then into eastern New York and ultimately across I-90 all the way home to Grove City. I was gra.