You're listening to lifekit from NPR.
Hey, what's up everyone?
Andrew Limbaugh here in for Mario Saguerra.
The other day I had to run an errand.
It wasn't crazy.
Far from where I live in Baltimore, it was just in a part of town I don't go to all that often.
So I hopped into the car and performed that ritual I imagine a lot of us do before the seat belts, before checking the mirrors, before even turning the car on.
Alright, where am I going?
Where is this place?
I plugged the address into my phone.
1021 Delaney Valley Road.
Put it on the little holder thingy on the dash, and then, and only then off I went.
It's a little ridiculous if you think about it.
I was headed to a local college campus.
It's not out of the way on some hidden back street.
It's on a main strip and there are a bunch of signs around it being like the college campus is this way.
And yet, though I would have loved to have spent this beautiful spring drive with the windows down, bumping vampire weekend uninterrupted in the whip because I dont have a great sense of direction, I was at the mercy of Google Maps because without it, not only would I be lost, id also feel lost.
And I know im not the only one.
One of the things we measure in our lab is whether people feel anxious if they suddenly find themselves lost or realize they've lost track of where they are.
That's Mary Hagerty, a cognitive psychologist at the University of California, Santa Barbara.