GPS - Love or Hate?

Do you get lost without a GPS? Or do you have an innate sense of direction, or map reading skills that help you find your way?

I recently got into an argument with my hubbie (we rarely argue) because he wouldn't quit listening to that English woman. You know the one - the demanding voice inside the GPS that says (in a revolting accent) "Turn Right. In point. two. miles. turn right. In one. point. seven, miles, keep left. Keep. Left."

And when you pull into a Burger King so someone *raiseshand* can use the restroom, the woman becomes confused, and the voice gets more strident. "Recalculating" she says, and then "Drive point. four. miles. and Turn Right. Then Turn Left!"

I get so upset at that woman I end up calling her names. "Turn it off," I begged my husband. "I have a map - I can get you there."

But Noooo . . . He is addicted to the British woman in his GPS. Actually I think he's addicted to technology, period, like most of us.

But I worry - not only do I think it's unsafe to take your eyes off the road to keep looking at the little, ever-changing map, but whatever happened to our innate navigation skills? I learned them horseback, riding over mountains and through deep canyons and fording streams and having to find the way home, or else. And I learned them by hiking, and looking ahead of me (and behind me) and learning my way around.

Is technology taking those skills away? Are we becoming incapable of finding our way out of a paper bag without a GPS navigator?

(As for me, I'm going to fix hubbie. If I get my hands on that &*%#$ GPS of his, I'll change the voice to some Australian Bloke. heh heh heh)

What about you? Are you in love with your GPS? Or can you follow directions, or figure out where to go by your wits and skill?