If you’re old enough, you remember the map.
The map or atlas you had to use to find out how to go from here to there. What you used when you went on a road trip or what you used to find the home of a friend you were visiting for the first time.
And remember how you had to literally map out the best route and sometimes all the planning, and even frustration, it took to do it, so you did get to where you were going.
All of that seems like ancient history now what with the advent of GPS technology. Now, we just tell our smart phone or our car’s GPS system where we want to go and we don’t have to plot it out and we don’t even have to think about it.
Well, from the file of unintended consequences comes a study that found that all the GPS technology could be adversely affecting our brain.
The researchers found that when you turn on GPS, some parts of your brain turn off, especially the area which controls memory and navigation, the prefrontal cortex, which guides decisions and plans..
Does that mean we will go back to maps? Of course not.
But it could mean that if self-driving cars really do become a reality one day, we may have to find ways to spend more time doing things that strengthen our brains decision making process. Maybe that’s why Wordle came along.
(Photo Getty Images)
Photo: Getty Images