Garmin Nuvi 255W..... the Idiots That We Become

Keep right ... recalculating... please get on the highlighted route, 2.4km to Jln..... so goes the mechanical but sultry voice with an English accent....

Finally got ourselves a Garmin Nuvi 255W. I have an old GPS which my bro gave me some time ago... was a real basic unit; a Garmin etrex. Tells you the path you took from point to point. We don't travel much and never quite saw the need to get a GPS; that was until recently. Driving around in KL has gotten more stressful. One wrong turn... more toll, more distance, more time.. finally, we thought we might as well... add that to the fact that Other Half has been eyeing one for some time now. So that's how the Garmin Nuvi 255W entered our lives.... and the beginning of our idiocy. LOL!

Getting around didn't pose too much of a problem after this... I mean we were able to get from Point A to Point B without really having to go round and round very much. The voice would still get you back onto the highlighted path even if you make a wrong turn....

And when we got home, we were somewhat pleasantly surprised that the map of AS was rather detailed too. But whatever it is, looks like the GPS is going to be a standard companion whenever we take a drive out of town.

One thing struck me though... the idiots that we become to this little square box that talks to us with a an accent... and you can specify the preference of the voice, male or female. We do its bidding so obediently and we trust it completely. And in the process, we become a little dumber cos our brains and eyes don't have to work so hard. The mobile phone took away the need to memorize phone numbers... I, for one can't remember my Other Half's mobile number! If I lose my mobile, I don't know whether it's the mobile that is lost or me! And now the GPS is taking away the need to remember your directions or read the signboards. Just look dumbly at the GPS... wait for it to calculate your route or recalculate if you happen to sesat even after all the instructions...

Man! If you were to get lost after being a dependent of that little machine, you're going to be one lost fler for sure. Dependence does that to us.. makes us a little dumber by the day. Remember the days before the calculator?? How fast we were able to compute the plus and minus, times and division? These days, we have to put on our thinking caps even for simple additions. Dumb and dumber we get.... but then again...