I have a terrific sense of direction and almost never used paper maps in my life.

A few times as a kid when we were taking road trips, more out of boredome.

I think the difference is between paying attention to the map. Putting places in context of places nearby and paying attention to where you are going. Vs blindly following directions or a map (paper or not).

This, exactly.

I use a chartplotter when out on the water. I'd be lost without it. No really, there is a lot of Fog this time of year.

This, exactly. Added bonus is the ease of flipping through pages compared to flipping through screens.

I also prefer books to eReaders but GPS maps update your exact position every second and can calculate directions for you. They are far superior to a paper map, not just a matter of preference.

I enjoy the feeling I get when I plot my own course. No biggie. I don't see the need for a GPS device.

I find it to be the opposite. I've held 700+ pages novels open for hours and it gets tiring. I've had more than a few 100 page novels with annoyingly resilient spines. Being able to tap the side of a screen is great. Also, walking around with hundreds of books in my pocket, even without the internet. I went to africa for three weeks and took an old phone plus a couple extra batteries. No worries about charging and a large well of entertainment when you factor in music and other media.

This, the people I know who grew up with digital maps are the worst at navigating without having directions being yelled at them.

I enjoy my Kindle. It's great for recipe finding. It's also great for ordering books for school projects. I can find whatever they need to read. I just prefer paper books. I wouldn't want to be without the Kindle for everything else.

This. Those that just input the address and not ever pay attention to the general direction they go , are doomed to never know the makeup of a city or shortcuts that GPS doesnt catch. Personally I Dont ever use GPS on my phone. I will look at maps , digital or print , but I won't let GPS give me directions.

You will if you ever get lost and/or have an outdated/bad map.

That's not to say that GPS is never wrong. It's certainly led me to the middle of nowhere and said a large retail store was located inside an empty house. Now, the GPS portion was working. The map showed exactly where I was, but its database of where other things were located was a bit off.
So much this. eReader is good for casual reading or pleasure reading, but I can't do, say, actual learning from one. I flip around to much and too quickly by recognizing page layouts/shapes.

I know they have bookmarks and stuff that are supposed to make that much easier, but it never feels intuitive to me.

What I usually do is have a look at my destination and save it in my navigator. When the destination is somewhere I've never been I take the last exit of the highway and turn it on just so I dont mistake like 3rd left for 2nd left or something but Ill generally know the direction Im heading. My father lives like 5 turns, one highway and another 5 turns from my house but my little brother doesn't even know which way to turn onto the highway without gps helping him out, I usually yell at him for this.

For example, I'm driving from Las Vegas to Portland today. No idea how a paper map would tell me the few turns I have to make between here and Reno. I think there are less than 5, and some of them are at stop lights in very small "towns".

The worst are professional truck drivers who have no sense of direction and no GPS or ability to use it. A couple weeks ago I get a call at work from a guy bringing a load to us.

Me- "Hello"
TD- "I need directions to get to your place"
Me- "Where are you now"
TD- "I am on HWY 121"
Me- "Are you heading East or West?"
TD- "I don't know, I am coming from Lewisville"
Me- "OK, youare heading West, exit at Freeport and go South about 2 miles and you can't miss us"
TD- "Is that right or left?"
Me- "I don't know, I never come that way, just be sure to go South"
TD- "OK but which way do I turn to go South?"
Me- "Dude, seriously, you can't tell South from North?"

But yes...this should piss me off

My dog can tell north from south, at least that's what science says, so a truck driver getting paid to arrive at places should be able to as well.

People that still Dont know that when you are going north , east is to the right of you and west is to the left .

that i can't have long brown hair and a short full beard without being called jesus or john lennon. after hundreds of times being called that im fairly certain im actually one of two dead men.

Company picnics, outings, stuff like that. With all the terrible behavior i see at work, and the complete negligence by coworkers, the sight of them with their own kids makes me absolutely insane.

I work at a staffing company that places truck drivers. It's amazing how bad some of them are with directions.

The crux of the matter to me is not that GPS systems are good, bad or great. It just surprises me how helpless some people seem without one.

The other week I called a new boutique to see if they carried a particular item. They did. I recognized their street name from their ad, but, because of new development in the area, I wasn't sure of the exact location. I asked her when I got to intersection X, did I need to turn left or right. She was clueless. She absolutely could not orient herself in terms of a location that it turned out she passed every day. I have no idea why, but this boggles my mind.

I think the north south East West thing depends on your city.

In London everyone talks about east london, West London etc. So every one is very familiar with directions like that. In manila people don't, so talk about coming to or from a specific place or city.

I'd guess it's the same for US cities.

People really are helpless nowadays because of GPS. Same goes with new phone numbers. I know people who Dont know their husbands number even though they been married for a couple years.

I think its just ignorance for the most part. Most freeways in the USA are usually true to their east/west /north/south labeling. If you are heading south on the jersey parkway and you want to head to the beach on your exit , it should be given that its east/left of the parkway. You should know that you have to go under/over the parkway to head east if you were going south.

I would however, like to know if people are satisfied with their GPS systems in heavy traffic when navigating the "circles" in New Jersey.