You stand in the telephone booth and call your best friend, because she is late again and no one answering the phone. Is something happened? Or is she late? Sometimes I had to stand there and wait for hours, hoping and trusting that everything is ok. The problem was not only that there were no cell phones at that time, but also my best friend is a notorious late mate.
What I’m trying to say is: In older days you needed more time for everything. And you needed to buy a map, when you were in a place you didn’t know!
I remember walking around Venice with a map trying to find places, I’d like to see, but the map couldn’t tell me, how it would be there. So in the end, if you found the place you were looking for, sometimes you ended up in a bad and expensive pizza place, wondering why the pizza at home is better, than in Italy. And going with this big map in your hands is not so nice, too. You barely see the city behind it and accidents could happen easily. You could run into a person, or fall down. What actually happened many times to me. In Venice, you have to be careful not to fall in one of the 1000 canals.
Why I love Google Maps:
You can travel and be spontaneous! If you are in a City you have never been to, you can check, where you have dinner, have a drink or know exactly where to sightseeing.
You don’t get lost! It’s navigation system is getting better and better. And you get led to your destination , no matter if you go by car, bey feet or with the bicycle!
It’s simple to use! Even if I don’t have Wi-Fi I can download the map of the city I go to on my phone and can use google maps even without internet connection! That’s great 
It’s honest! The stars tell you what you can expect. If you want to have good food and see a place, it helped me 1000 times. I’m thankful, that I don’t need to find everything by my own, like in these older days without cellphone and google maps.
Yes, it’s long ago, but life was slow and while you were travelling you had to walk around with maps made of paper! 