My name is John and I was born in 1980. Most of you will wonder why this is relevant, but trust me it is.
You see, I just missed the “millennial” tag (1981 right?), and as such I have grown up with a sort of “time warped” childhood. What I mean by this is that I grew up with the old technologies, and while they disappeared and became obsolete they were replaced by the new that are with us today. But I still clearly remember the “old” way of doing things while we go on with our lives with the new things. This is why it affords me an opportunity to be thankful for what technology has brought us - the old days were vastly different.
Movies
I used to rent VHS, rewind them, watch them in low definition glory on a 54cm CRT TV. Then I rented DVDs, watched them in 480p on a 80cm TV.
Now, I stream movies in 4k onto a 2 metre TV. I am in awe every day because I remember the struggle from 30 years ago.
Navigation
I once got lost in town at midnight and had to call my father to help. I was scared. I then purchased a stand alone navigation that helped me going forward (it cost a fortune) but couldnt use it when I traveled overseas unless I bought the maps for those countries.
Now, I just open google maps and it helps me get anywhere from anywhere. In any country and with traffic and satellite feeds.
Music
Similar to movies - I used to buy tapes and listen on my walkman. It used to wear out sure. Then MP3s came along. Now, you open Google Play Music and just listen to what you want. Any song, any time. It is there.
I can go on and on about more examples like gaming, parenting and so on - but this is where Local Guides comes in and what it means to me.
Local Guides is a technology driven way to guide anyone and everyone around the world to discover new and wonderful things. Tourist and travel books from the 1990’s were limited and outdated.
Local guides is a way for locals to share the real joy and special places that travelers or tourists would never find in commercialized travel books. It enables discovery and content that would never have been possible before the advent of Local Guides.
Thank-you Google.