The digital age is revolutionizing the art of navigation. Is this a good thing or a bad? What have we gained? What are we losing? And what’s the bottom line? A recent news story got me thinking about just these questions, and I’ve come to some conclusions. But first, a little background…

Maps have always captivated me. Paper maps, that is. This isn’t surprising. I’m surrounded by them. They adorn my walls. They spill out of the filing cabinets under my desk. They sprawl untidily—half folded, half open—over tables, chairs, and bookshelves, accumulating in ever deeper drifts that totter precariously and sometimes cascade spontaneously to the floor. Imagine my dismay, then, when I heard a recent BBC interview with Mary Spence, the president of the British Cartographic Society, who made the disturbing assertion that GPS receivers and mapping software were literally robbing us of our history, “diluting the quality of the graphic image that we call a map.”

The president of the Royal Geographic Society seemed to be suggesting we were entering a world in which the rich, informative tapestry of paper maps was rapidly being degraded to a crude, pixilated caricature—a sexed-up, dumbed-down, just-show-me-where-to-turn black box, good for little but navigating from burger franchise to shopping mall to subdivision (with maybe a quick stop at the bank to withdraw the last of the cash left in the rainy-day account). And at first I feared that she might be right. Soon, however, I began to reconsider. After all, I’m no knee-jerk technophobe. I write on a computer, e-mail articles to my publishers, use a PocketMail® device on trips (with its acoustic coupler, the PocketMail Composer is itself something of retrotech wonder), and carry a cell phone wherever I go. I even use a small GPS receiver on occasion. Moreover, I’m considering buying an iPod touch®, as much for its capabilities as a “portable media player” as its utility in the role of “wi-fi mobile platform.” No doubt about it, then I’m a Digital Girl. Whether I like it or not.

So what’s the bottom line? Which is it to be? The old tradition of paper maps and magnetic compasses? Or the new tradition of GPS receivers and digitized maps? But do we really have to choose between them? Why not use BOTH? Read more…