Navigating beyond places: The significance of navigation tools in everyday media use

Abstract

This study examines navigation tools as key mediators of spatial perception, mobility, and digital infrastructures, contributing to scholarship on mediatization, geomedia, and surveillance studies. Navigation apps like Google Maps do not merely facilitate wayfinding; they actively shape spatial experiences, decision-making, and social interactions. Using a mixed-methods approach, we combined real-time activity tracking via the “MapRecorder” tool with qualitative interviews to analyze how users engage with Google Maps. Our findings reveal that navigation tools function as interfaces of spatial production, social connection, and data extraction, embedding themselves in everyday media repertoires. We identify four key usage patterns—search, place, directions, and map view manipulation—demonstrating that navigation is increasingly entangled with broader digital habits. In addition, the data suggested a paradoxical relationship between user convenience and concerns over dataveillance, contributing to debates on privacy resignation and the platformization of spatial control. By foregrounding these tensions, our study extends discussions on the deep mediatization of space, the role of geomedia in shaping mobility, and the sociotechnical power of digital navigation infrastructures.