Yi, 1

Annabelle Yi

CAS 137H - 008

Robin Kramer

31 October 2017

It’s The Destination, Not The Journey

During the first week of college, everyone is staring at their phone. Surprisingly, they’re

not texting, taking selfies, or checking snapchat - they’re lost as hell. With faces stuck in Google

Maps, they bump into each other while strolling past landmarks and street signs that could ease

their journey getting to class. Getting lost instills nervousness and anxiety rather than adventure

and thrill. With the growth of highly efficient technology and fast-paced jobs, the rush of

today’s culture drowns out the outside world, creating a tunnel vision people can’t escape from,

always focusing on the destination rather than the journey. Just follow the blue line…

In the 1950’s, America had an economical high after WWII. Cars became affordable to

almost everyone, and in almost no time it overtook both trains and buses as the common man’s

main mode of transportation. Families then began to move out of the cities and into suburbs,

even civil rights movements and rock bands were on the move. Travelling and driving places

became central in everyone’s life. People of all ages gained freedom in the extra time and

luxuries gifted to them from the economic boom, especially women. Housewives could finally

leave the home and take to the roads as their husbands did. Everyone had the time and freedom

to venture where they pleased and enjoy themselves at their leisure. However, people began to

realize paper maps were rather bulky and inconvenient. This was when scientists decided to

bring a little Space to Earth.

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The early GPS systems developed in the 1960s-1970s were initially used for Space and

military programs. The Navy made the first satellite navigation system, called TRANSIT, which

they used to track submarines in deep ocean waters. The satellite signals were slow and took

hours to receive, but it became the foundation of GPS systems used today. After over twenty

years of development, the first commercially-sold GPS came in the form of The Benton Esc!, a

mobile phone sold mainly in Europe with a built-in GPS (“A brief history of GPS”). With the

beginnings of a mobile GPS system, people had the ability to travel to any destination they

pleased. However a decade later, the GPS system would become more than just a GPS.

The technological boom of the 1990’s gave way to an innovative renaissance for

efficiency and convenience. Multiple devices that would originally function independently could

be turned into apps on a phone, the GPS being no exception. Everything you need is at your

fingertips. With everything conveniently placed in your hand, the need to go out starts to die off.

You can order delivery if you’re hungry. You can buy things online and have it shipped to your

house in a matter of days. You don’t even need to go to the bank anymore if you have their

mobile banking app. You can do almost everything in the comfort of your own home, and never

have to leave. Ironically, this has allowed society to become efficient at being lazy. There is no

desire to venture out and explore since most of the world has been explored already, able to be

viewed with a quick Google search. Instead of visiting a monument or landmark you can simply

read or watch about it. Digital cartography has advanced to the point where you can see the

outside of your own house rendered in 3D without leaving your doorstep. You can walk down

streets without physically walking. These maps spoil the adventure, handing everything to you

on a plate, while the old maps let you figure things out on our own and gain a sense of adventure

and exploration.
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It’s interesting to note that since moving maps from paper to screen, the focus shifted

from looking at the big picture to honing in on a single moving dot. The GPS puts you in the

center, with the world melting away as you pass. Paper maps are stagnant, showing the world in

an array of tangles, all in context of one another. As Jordan Hale says in his article, “[paper

maps] orient us in a way that ensures we're more likely to know our way around in the future”

(“Why”). Having a line to follow is convenient, yes, but we lose our sense of place as we play

“follow the leader” and forget there’s more than one way to get to a destination as a paper map

would show. With directions being spoon-fed to us, being presented with a non-digital map is

overwhelming and “too much like hard work” (“Four out of Five”).

Speaking of hard work, another reason why complacency has settled in today’s culture is

simply because we work too much. There has always been the drive to gain something - money,

fame, power, etc. If you fall behind, you lose your chance to become successful. Having free

time used to be a sign of success and it was ideal to have shorter work hours. However, since the

introduction of technology, a growing competitive climate has employees working overtime and

suffering longer hours. “According to a 2014 Gallup poll, half of all full time workers in the US

said they generally work more than 40 hours a week, and nearly four in ten said they put in at

least 50 hours” (“Why Are”). Demands are getting bigger, expecting to be fulfilled in shorter

amounts of time. A vicious cycle of progress and completion traps workers into a perpetual loop

of getting things done, quickly, quickly, quickly. The US is one of few counties that does not

require to give their workers paid leave or holiday. If someone is working more than eight hours

a day, not getting paid properly for overtime, and giving up vacations and time with their

families, it’s no wonder we have desired more convenience in our everyday lives. It’s hard

enough driving to work.

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Since the formation of suburbs after WWII, commuting from home to work became a

daily routine for the middle-class worker. Highways and interstates became the fastest way to get

from one place to another, trading tourism for speed. One could drive for hours on a single

highway and never see the hundreds of small towns or little places that go unnoticed, blocked by

our sense to get somewhere quickly. Rest stops became the faster, cheaper alternative to towns.

You could get food, gas, relief, and be on your way in minutes. Meanwhile, towns that used to

profit from travelers would go unnoticed and their businesses would die out. The mentality to not

waste time dilly-dallying has taken hold not just in the way we use navigation but also the way

we drive on our roads.

Speed limits have only gone up since the creation of speedways, having been 50mph in

the 1960’s, a laughable speed when compared to today’s 70-80mph (“Historic”). This change is

rather extreme, going up about 10mph every decade. The legal reason why speeds have increased

was due to cars being more reliable and safer to drive compared to twenty or thirty years ago.

This need for speed however, only fed the rushing mentality to go quick and fast from one place

to another. Taking your time driving is dangerous now. While some feel excitement in going at

dangerously high speeds, others feel dread and anxiety, which does not pair well with the

stresses of not knowing where you’re going.

“Gotta go fast” has taken a whole new meaning with today’s rising technology and

speed-focused culture. A surprising amount of scenery and experiences are missed when driving

on a highway, and unfortunately most people will never get to experience them unless they take

the time to slow down and be willing to step out of their comfort zone to explore a little. It could

even be as small as taking finding a different way back then the one you used to get there.
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Works Cited

"The 1950s." History.com. A+E Networks, 2010. Web.

Hale, Jordan. "Why Are Paper Maps Still A Thing?" Motherboard. Vice, 29 May 2015.

Web.

"Historic Speed Limits." Massachusetts Historic Speed Limits. N.p., n.d. Web.
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Moodie, Alison. "Why Are Americans Spending Too Much Time at Work?" The

Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 30 June 2016. Web.

Reynolds, Adam. "Living in the Age of Convenience." Fresh Business Thinking.

IntegratedLive, n.d. Web.

Sullivan, Mark. "A Brief History of GPS." PCWorld. IDG, 09 Aug. 2012. Web.

Vermont, Jens Hilke University of. "Landscape Change Program." University of Vermont.

N.p., n.d. Web.

Ward, Alex. "Four out of Five Young Drivers Can't Read a Map as We Become More

Reliant on Satnavs." Daily Mail Online. Associated Newspapers, 21 Jan. 2013. Web.