Holy Cow(le's mountain)
The night started out like any other, punching the address of our destination into one of my friend’s smart phones, while I am fiddling with an accordion style map. A man versus machines type trial. However, this time the destination was a little different than my normal Saturday night destinations. We were headed to Cowle’s Mountain on a night hike. We arrived at our first destination, the parking lot at the base of the mountain, without any problems, but the big question looming in the air had to be: how would we get to the top without the help of our trusty GPS? We started our trek; there was no specific destination, but we knew that we wanted to end at a top of something. We just kept going up, and up, and up. As we got about half way there, I knew we were leaving civilization in some fashion due to the exclamation of a fellow hiker, “I lost my internet connection!” There were even a couple moments during the hike where I was able to stop and smell the mountain shrubbery (arguably just as fulfilling as roses). We finally got to the top, munched on a Crispix-baby chocolate chip mixture, and took some light art photographs.
After these festivities we made our way down the mountain. This was the tricky part. It was completely black with the exception of our flash lights, and nobody had any idea what path we took in order to reach our destination. Our way down consisted of checking out sketchy looking paths that looked familiar to us because of their "unique" rock and dirt exteriors. Needless to say, many of these led to dead ends. The mounting number of dead ends led to a conversation topic: the creation of a hiking app. This is a very common phenomenon in today's world. When something in our everyday life becomes stressful or a nuisance, we start thinking about the ways we can use our telephones to fix the nuisance. Our hour and a half trek up turned into a three hour journey on the way down, leading to the question, “Why isn’t there a ‘path following’ app.” In the end though, our extra-long journey led to a greater sense of self accomplishment, a tighter group feel and a more satisfying 3 am Jack In The Box run.
With the Help of a Smartphone
Let us start the story from the top of the mountain. On we trek down, luckily we find out one of our companions owns a smartphone equipped with the map of Cowle’s mountain and has our positions pinpointed on his GPS. The hike down was a little more treacherous, but just as fun. We ended up getting home around midnight which gave me time to catch the end of my friend’s party. The problem with going to parties as they are winding down is that people don’t seem to have all their wits about them at that point. To give some lively imagery, the lasting memory of the night for me was watching a female peer throw up her Jack In The Box dinner in my friends sink; disgusting and humorous at the same time.
Not only does the intervention of the Smartphone in this situation give me different impressions of Jack In The Box but it raises of few questions :
Does this new technology get in the way of building relationships or increase chances of building more relationships? and what is its affect on team building and sense of group accomplishment?
One of the main problems with smartphone apps that aid you in some way is when the problem is affecting more than one person. Problem solving and working with others use to be a very important skill. Challenges that sprout up should be a catalyst of building relationships and teamwork. It has turned into a race to see who has the fastest internet connection and coolest, most innovative phone applications.
I understand the other side the other side of the argument as well. There is no reason to make things more difficult than they have to be. I am only saying that in some situations the process of solving a problem is just as valuable as the actual solution.