The downside of gadgetry
This entry was posted on 5/1/2007 6:57 AM and is filed under Cars.
A recent visit from my folks got me thinking about the whole experience of driving and being a passenger these days.
My dad, who has always been hopeless when it comes to a sense of direction, recently purchased a GPS system. It's been wonderful for him. He even attached it to his rental car so that he could figure his way around Ann Arbor.
But here's what he told me: Now that he is focusing on the GPS, he no longer pays attention to landmarks on the roads that used to be an essential part of navigation to him. Instead, he listens to the GPS voice and occasionally looks for the green spots on the screen, which in Ann Arbor can be anything from city parks to Michigan Stadium.
Too bad.
It helped me remember a recent trip up to northern Michigan's wine country with my fiance, her son and my two kids. For the occasion, we rented a Saturn Relay to make everyone comfortable for the four-hour drive.
But I wonder how much those boys missed.
Yes, I know. All of us adults have memories of seemingly endless family car trips where there was almost nothing to do except for stare out the window, play the occasional alphabet game and groan (everyone say it together) "Are we there yet?"
These days, there are Gameboys, laptops and Ipods to keep the young'uns occupied. This particular rental car even had a DVD player with a pulldown screen. It certainly reduced arguments - except for when the question of which Will Farrell movie to play came up.
But did our kids really experience the magic of northern Michigan?
On several occasions, we nudged them out of their mini-universes to point out this or that beautiful view. The sight was acknowledged for a second or so, but then they went back to getting Link through the forest or watching Jack Black play the "Immigrant Song" for his "School of Rock" class. Looking back, 10-15 years from now, will anything they saw outside the car window really register?
I can't tell you how many images of America remain indelible in my brain because, by default, I was looking out the car window as a kid - whether it was something as breathtaking as the Pacific Coast Highway or something as eye-opening as the crumbling parts of Philadelphia during my parents' quest for the perfect cheese steak. In some ways, it made me who I am today - an eager traveler of the world, someone with an insatiable curiosity to see what a little squiggle on a road map really looks like.
Will this generation ever be like that? Or are we part of a vanishing breed?
I hope not.
