Despite the critics who argue that Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) will lead to a dramatical effect on cities, a growing body of research elicit empirical data suggests that ICT s can improve people’s awareness and connection to their urban surroundings. Navigation programs when embedded in smart phones and portable devices made wayfinding easier for users, but to what extent such tools will/is affecting peoples’ awareness of their spatial surroundings? Users are now more smarter and more efficient in using navigation programs but is this robotizing them, thus dehumanizing cities? The paper briefly reviews literature on both spatial awareness and location aware technologies. It then investigates the changes resulting from the digital revolution on peoples’ awareness and cognition of their spatial surroundings through an empirical study. |
