This topic contains 5 replies, has 6 voices, and was last updated by 
AuntieNae 12 years, 10 months ago.
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The game has obviously changed from 5 or 6 years ago. Everyone has a Smart phone or so it seems ( I don’t) and cachers can receive instant updates of new caches and so on. Do you think that Technology has hindered the sport of Geocaching or helped it?
I definatly think technology has helped Geocaching to grow. Many people can experience geocaching now without having to purchase a GPS. Any person who hears about it can now just download the app and give it a try, see if they like it. I know that’s how I personally got involved in geocaching at first.
Technology has helped and hurt the sport.
It has helped by bringing geocaching more mainstream, by giving people the chance to try the sport.
but it has hurt the sport also.
I have seen TB’s and coins go missing from “first and only” cache finds by new cell phone cachers.
Smart phones are also not accurate enough to place caches. I have found a couple that were 80+ ft off that were placed by smart phone.
IMPO the geocaching website should ask what unit the cache was placed with and should be on the cache page.
I agree with what sweetlife shared. Technology is a great tool that has let people find a cheap way into our sport but that also brings along with it some pitfalls. A quick free download and you can be off and caching but the tehcnology brings with it issues.
Plenty of times caches placed by phones have been known for being a little shakey with the coordinates but there are plenty of ways to combat that now that the satellite maps are so detailed.
The addition of detailed sat maps has been a huge asset for getting an idea of terrain and cache locations before heaidng out on adventures.
Following the signals from space.
Great question Mathman,
I feel that technology has both helped and hindered geocaching. With all these free caching apps, it has helped geocaching explode to people who would not have normally given this a try. Within the past cpl years, the number of cachers have exploded! The new numbers can be a good thing.However, on the opposite side of things, it does have some downfalls. The main one is log etiquette. All to often, newer cahcers using smart phones tend to leave logs like “.” or “:)”. Yes, technically, it is a legit online log but when they do it on caches where cache owners spent hours and days out of their life to place quality caches for us to find, I feel that thise logs are inadequete.
That is where education comes to play. Educating cachers who use these type of logs can go a long way (if done tastefully). Education is key!
Well, that’s my 2 cents worth on new technology.
Personally, I do use both the handheld gps and my iphone for caching.
Technology has definitely changed and a great deal at that since I started geocaching. In the past, it was a process to use a Palm to download the files so you could have the geocache information right in your hand versus going in blind. Although we do need to recognize that not everyone has been able to upgrade to the newer GPSreceivers ..
Technology has helped because it is now easier to get into geocaching and quicker to get cache information.
Technology has hurt because the accuracy factor on cell phones is not quite there yet. It might not be possible to zero down well to find a more difficult cache or place one.
There still is an educational curve as to the culture you could say .. the putting caches back as found and not leaving them laying out and open .. the type of found or not found logs .. that best happens at events.
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