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If your parents ever told you about the difficulties of living in an era without remote-control TV, you may have an idea of how your children and grandchildren will react to your stories about the absolute horror of life without GPS navigation. Yes, someday this wonder of technology will be taken for granted.
Ubiquitous
“Ubiquitous” refers to something that seems to be everywhere. While the popularity of GPS navigation is growing by leaps and bounds, it is still far from ubiquity. It does, however, have all of the ear marks of becoming the kind of thing that will someday be everywhere.
A hundred years ago, few people thought that telephones would catch on the way that they have. After all, humanity existed for thousands of years without the need to converse with someone miles away in real time. They simply wrote letters. For the younger among the reading audience, “letters” are what people used to call snail mail.
Fifty years ago, most people accepted air conditioning as something to enhance the movie-going experience only. The pioneers of business who saw that home air-conditioning units should be developed and marketed were once regarded as foolhardy optimists, though now of course they are seen for what they really are – saints.
It’s a bit ironic that a device that tells you where you are and where you’re going will someday be both where you are and where you’re going, as well as everywhere in between. Just as GPS navigation is now being built into cars, laptops, PDAs, and even cameras, it could someday be built into jewelry, school books, sunglasses and street signs.
Lifestyle Changes
It’s difficult to predict how the ubiquity of GPS navigation will change the lifestyle of the near future. Anyone who’s stumbled around lost on a large college campus can appreciate the possibilities of GPS navigation system that will one day guide students from the chemistry lab to the student union. But will online colleges make that unnecessary?
A GPS navigation system will be a great addition to the experience of shopping in a big-box type of store. If the trend for larger stores continues, GPS navigation may actually become a necessary part of the experience. Maybe someday greeters will offer shoppers a disposable GPS navigation device as they enter the complex in the way that movie theaters once gave out cardboard 3-D glasses.
So, be warned. Someday you will look into the eyes of a cute little 3-year-old who just found a GPS navigation yo-yo in a cereal box and you will tell him or her how lucky the new generation is to have such technologies and you will watch those lovely eyes roll.
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