In an odd way, switching to the iPhone has made me a better citizen.
I don’t want to say that I’m not helpful, just that when it comes to directions, sometimes people would be better off asking a seeing-eye dog than asking me. I’m hopeless. When people stop me on the street to ask for directions I usually look the other way or bluster past them with a hastily whispered “Sorry”. That doesn’t happen anymore thanks to the iPhone’s built-in GPS and Maps application.
Last night as I was biking home, a grandmotherly woman flagged me down as I slowly pedalled past. She asked me to point her in the direction of Ash street, and for the life of me I could not remember where it was. Never mind that I whiz past Ash street whenever I ride my bike to work or to the Canada Line station, and never mind that I’d literally just rolled past it a few seconds before the woman stopped me. I just could not place Ash street in my head at all.
I finally remembered I had an iPhone, so I pulled my bike to the side of the curb, grabbed the phone, launched the Maps application, and pointed the woman one block east of where we were standing.
The story here is that thanks to the iPhone, I’m now willing to interact with people in a way that I haven’t been eager to before. I don’t have to worry that I’ve sent some unsuspecting tourist into False Creek by telling them to turn left when I should have told them to turn right. I’m able to introduce a small but meaningful human interaction into my day, and even though I experience interactions like this dozens of times a day at the reference desk, helping a lost stranger find their way seems more altruistic somehow.