[dleslie]

The weird thing is that I never needed computer assisted navigation until it existed. In my local area I simply remembered where streets were, and when traveling I used a map book.

I also cherished photos and put more effort into taking them. Now I just spam the photo button and wait on Google to select the best one to automatically improve and remind me of later. Even then, I have so many that I never find myself flipping through them like I did with physical photos.

I read encyclopedias. The many volumes were an invitation to knowledge, dillineated by pages and sections. Online knowledge is an endless pit of knowledge of questionable value.

Really, it wasn't bad. I'd say peak value was around 98 or 99. Before XMLHTTPRequest became popular, when the web was still mostly documents and forms. NNTP still mattered, and Encarta was useful.

After that I've just felt like I am swimming upriver against an assault to my humanity.

[quanticle]

>The weird thing is that I never needed computer assisted navigation until it existed. In my local area I simply remembered where streets were, and when traveling I used a map book.

You are extremely fortunate. It may not be apparent to you, but the advent of GPS, smartphones and Google Maps has been a game changer for so many people. My sense of direction is all right. I'm not a homing pigeon, but given a map, I can generally find my way around. But for other people such as my mom, every trip, outside of some well-traveled routes (like going to work, or going to the store) had to have detailed written directions, and be rehearsed ahead of time, because otherwise she'd get lost. For her, Google Maps has resulted in a substantial improvement in the quality of her life, simply by enabling her to get around in the world without the constant background terror of not knowing how to get home.