I was not looking around, or paying much attention to my surroundings. Machine-like, I discounted anything that wasn’t relevant to my chosen journey. I found my eyes mainly moved from the screen to what was ahead and then back down again. I also had a growing sense that I was depriving myself of experience. I was existing without a real grasp of the geography of the places I was walking from, through and to. Some routes did become more familiar but, whenever I had to walk to a new place, I would take out my phone. My reliance on Google Maps meant I was simply shuttling from A to B. What’s more, I still felt ignorant of the geography of the city. Instead, I simply worried about not following the dotted line. That can come from things I notice as I go, or from the way that walking seems to get my brain to think in a way it doesn’t indoors. I often find inspiration for my writing as I walk. However, the more I used Google Maps, the more unsettled I felt. I arrived at things mostly on time, and was very rarely lost. The procession of smaller blue dots stretching out to my destination revealed the fastest way to get there. Whereas on a traditional paper map I would first have had to locate relevant landmarks and street names before positioning myself within the map’s landscape, the blue dot on my screen showed me exactly where I was. Almost automatically I used Google Maps to help me. Not owning a bike and not wanting to be reliant on Bristol’s very creaky bus system, I walked everywhere. After spending most of my life living in villages or small towns, being constantly surrounded by the busyness of a city was a shock.
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