Remembered my friend getting turned around in Montreal with just a paper map. He had to figure out the metro by asking people and spotting bakery signs, which actually stuck in his brain. That kind of fix really builds a mental picture you just don't get from turn-by-turn voice commands.
That bit about spotting bakery signs to figure out where you are really hits home. It makes me wonder how we used to pick those visual markers without even trying. Do you feel like having a map app constantly telling you where to go actually stops you from even looking at your surroundings? My sense of place got way worse when I started just following the blue line.