Is your map app destroying your brain?

 I use GoogleMaps on nearly a daily basis, despite being a fan of paper maps. (See But I miss paper maps.)

As Blue Skunk readers may remember, I have been doing a lot of volunteer driving for a nonprofit that supports senior citizens.* Three to five times a week, I give rides to people who can no longer drive to a medical appointment, to a hairdresser, or to a grocery store. Living in a fairly large metro area (Minneapolis-St Paul), I am constantly driving on unfamiliar streets to unfamiliar destinations. The Twin Cities seems to have one health care facility for every two citizens just to add to the confusion.

So GoogleMaps is very helpful indeed. My phone connects to my car’s dashboard monitor using Android Auto and a little Bluetooth receiver. I can watch the app in real time while driving. Much like having a human navigator, it tells me where to turn. But it also shows me the speed limit and warns me of potential traffic problems ahead. As I tell my passengers, my AI overlord doesn’t always show the shortest route, but it always shows the fastest route. And it is usually dead-on predicting the ETA. To say I have grown dependent upon GPS may be an understatement**.

So I was a bit alarmed when I read in last week’s newspaper:

…recent studies suggest that ceding the planning and execution of daily travel to global positioning systems can exact a cognitive price. That is, when GPS use becomes habitual, it’s not just the skills associated with reading a map that get rusty… the hippocampus, an ancient structure located deep in the brain, behind the ear and near the base of the skull…oversees spatial orientation and memory, is key to planning and decision-making and appears to play a role in our ability to imagine the future. …recent research suggests that we stop exercising that important part of the brain when we rely on GPS. “Ask the Doctors” Mankato Free Press, 1/8/2024

So, what to do? Revert to old paper maps - or simply hope the cognitive decline is not too fast and not too steep?

I am not sure it has to be an either/or proposition. Before each trip I take using GoogleMaps, I look at the complete route. The area’s major highways and streets are familiar to me and I can usually get close to my destination without using either a paper or electronic map. I sort of know in my head, the general route I will be taking. I don’t see much difference between looking at it on paper or on a screen. 

I also often rely on my clients to give me directions. Some of these folks have been residents of their neighborhoods for decades and have been going to their doctors or supermarkets for many years. They can direct one on a preferred route. I have one woman who was a former taxi driver and enjoys traveling the smaller streets, avoiding the major thoroughfares. No problem.

And finally, traveling on extended road trips while on vacation is a great opportunity to return to paper maps and practice one’s skills in using them - and pump a little oxygen into the hippocampus. When my friend and I take a road trip, the passenger usually sits with the Rand-McNally or state road map on their lap, tracking the trip's progress. We see it as a challenge to not consult the GPS at all. Growing up with printed maps, we usually do rather well.

So despite the potential danger of over-using my GoogleMaps, I will continue to do so. Recognizing, of course, this is simply one more way that AI will come to dominate my pathetic, biological life…

*I joke to my first time clients that they should relax - the company requires that I bring back at least 80% of my riders alive. Some laugh; some look a little alarmed.

**This applies to relying on GPS when I hike and bike as well.

Dear Dog Owner, Please explain…

The trash can is 95 steps from where the poop bag was deposited. I counted. 

Johnson’s Law of Dogs: There are no bad dogs, only bad dog owners.

I am genuinely curious. Why do dog walkers bag their puppy’s poop, but then leave the filled bags along the path or tied to a tree branch instead of placing it in a garbage can? 

This is such a common sight that there has to be some sort of reasonable answer.

Dog owners who make the effort to bag their canine’s do-do obviously have a conscience and understand their responsibility to keep our environment clean and safe*. They do, after all, begin the process of removing the waste.

But why go only half way? And might leaving poop in a plastic non-degradable or slowly degradable bag, be even worse than just leaving the leavings in nature?

The standard excuse made by bag droppers is that they intend to pick the bags up at the end of their hike but sometimes forget. Given the number of doggie baggies I see in any given week, owning a dog must exacerbate memory loss. Is it really that onerous to carry a small filled bag for the rest of the walk?

So my question remains - Why do dog walkers go just halfway in being good environmental stewards? And why might any of us make only half the needed effort to accomplish a worthwhile task?

*"Dog poop can contain E. coli, Giardia, worms, pharmaceuticals, as well as several billion fecal coliform bacteria. It can spread diseases, such as Parvovirus, and pollute soil and the water we drink and play in." (Leave no trace.)

Mental exercise

Watching a loved one experiencing mental decline*, results in a person’s concern for their own cognitive status grow. Looking for ways to prevent, or at least slow, the inevitable slide into senility becomes important. 

Lately, I’ve been spending a bit more time each day trying to do some mental gymnastics by playing games and solving puzzles online. 

For as long as I can remember (I think starting in the late 1970s), I’ve worked the scrambled word game Jumble first thing each morning. (According to Wikipedia it was started in 1954 and appears in over 600 newspapers.) It’s a pretty rare day that I don’t solve this one.

Lately, I’ve started to play the daily Connections game on the New York Times website. (See above.) Placing 16 words into related groups of four usually has me scratching my head a bit, but I “get it” more often than not. And I feel very proud when I make no mistakes. I share my results - the good ones, anyway. I’ve tried Wordle and I don’t find it much fun.

My friend Heidi and I have a habit of alternately giving and receiving the Isaac Asimov Super Quiz in the daily paper. Between the two of us, we probably average an 80-90% success rate. Recalling trivia is gets tougher as one ages, I believe.

Perhaps even more important than working a few puzzles is finding time to read a few challenging articles or chapters from a non-fiction book. Yeah, I read my share of thrillers and scifi and pop lit, but a good book on a serious topic supported by research is good for the noggin.

Finally, I write a bit each day. That may be my best indicator of mental acuity. With puzzles, some days are harder and some days are easier and I am left wondering if the difficult days are due to tougher puzzles or a slower brain. Given that many people get the Connections solutions on days that I don’t, leads me to worry that my brain may not be hitting on all cylinders every day. Perhaps my loyal blog readers can tell from my entries when I am thinking clearly and when not.

Is exercising one’s cognitive abilities simply an exercise in futility? Perhaps. But like physical exercise, when done well, mental stretching can also be a pleasure. Take your brain for a walk today by doing a puzzle. It can’t hurt. 

*My Mom’s memory has become increasingly poor over the past couple years, leading to her needing to be in an assisted living apartment. Tough to watch a once bright and independent individual now need daily support.