Is the GPS Your Frenemy?

我交了个新朋友，为此兴奋不已。他答应陪我到处逛，分享餐馆和购物经验，在我开车的时候陪我说话，还总是帮我保持方向感。它就是我的新GPS，我还没打开包装，就已经憧憬着与它一起度过的欢乐时光了。这些可爱的小电子设备有一些特质，令我们总想将它们拟人化，把它们当朋友。我们给它们取名字，学会欣赏它们最好的特色，当我们觉得它们错了时还会跟它们争论。我有个朋友酷爱激怒她的GPS，她给它取名“蒂娜”(Tina)。她总是故意开错方向，好听到“蒂娜”气急败坏地说：“重新计算……重新计算……”她确信她察觉“蒂娜”让她改正路线找个安全的地方掉头时声音里有一丝恼火。她想像“蒂娜”冷笑着说：“不是这边，是另一边的左边。”“蒂娜”甚至还有工间休息──当GPS发布指路信息出现延迟的时候。其他一些朋友得到了痛苦的教训：你可能会对这个新的与卫星连接的伙伴信任过了头。初涉爱河之时，他们将小心谨慎抛到九霄云外，把实体地图也扔在了车库里。他们自以为有了这个百事通，高高兴兴地跟着GPS的指引走。直到他们拐错了一个至关重要的弯，而且是在漆黑的深夜里，在离家很远的陌生城市。不管这个百事通提供什么信息都没有用。当他们在凌晨1点终于回到家里，他们简直要跟GPS一刀两断，看看已成旧爱的地图还会不会接受回心转意的自己。读者们，如果你有GPS，你对它是爱还是恨？它们有没有帮上你的忙，还是像个没用的令人分心的东西？你给这个小东西取了什么名字？欢迎大家为我提供命名建议。Stefanie Ilgenfritz(“工作•家” 讲述人们忙碌于工作和家庭之间时，做出的选择和折衷。)


I'm all excited about making a new friend, who promises to go with me everywhere, share restaurant and shopping tips, talk to me while I drive, and generally help me keep my bearings. It's my new GPS, and before it was even out of the box, I was imagining all the fun we would have.There's something about those cute little gadgets that makes us want to anthropomorphize them and develop a relationship. We give them names, learn to appreciate their best features, and argue with them when we think they're wrong.I have a friend who delights in irking her GPS, which she has named 'Tina.' She's been known to purposely drive in the wrong direction just to hear Tina sputter: 'Recalculating …recalculating ….' She's sure she detects an edge in Tina's voice when the device instructs her to get it right, and find a safe place to turn around. 'No, your other left,' she imagines Tina sneering.Tina even takes coffee breaks─when the GPS is delayed in delivering directions.Other friends learned the hard way that you can be too trusting of your new satellite-linked companion. In the first blush of new love, they threw caution to the wind and their printed maps in the garbage. They had what they thought was 'God in a Box,' blithely following their GPS wherever it led them. Until they took a fatal wrong turn. Late on a dark night. In a strange city, far from home. Whatever guidance God in a Box was giving them, it wasn't working. When they finally got home around 1 am, they were ready to break up with their GPS and see if their old maps would take them back.Readers, if you have a GPS, do you have more of a love or a hate relationship with it? Do they help your juggle, or do they seem like an unnecessary distraction? And what are some of the names you've given your little front-seat driver? I welcome any suggestions for naming mine.Stefanie Ilgenfritz