The old field guide habit I still miss even with plant apps

Honestly, I used to take my dog-eared Peterson guide on every hike, plus a notebook and a pencil. I'd spend 10 minutes flipping pages to match a leaf shape or the way the veins ran, and I'd circle the entry with a little note about where I found it. Now I just pull out my phone and snap a photo, and within seconds the app tells me it's something like a sawtooth blackberry. That's great for speed, but I notice I remember way less about the plants I ID this way. Last month I was out near the creek trail and saw a patch I'd documented twice with the app, and I still couldn't name it without checking again. Has anyone else felt like the convenience kinda kills the learning, or am I just stuck in my old ways?

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terryk1014d ago

Is the tradeoff between speed and memory something we see everywhere now, like how I can't remember my own phone number but know my kid's by heart? You're totally right that the struggle of looking something up is what makes it stick, the effort is the whole point. I've noticed the same thing with directions, I used to know every back road, now I blank out the second the GPS dies, so you're definitely not alone in missing that old way.