It's a mix. If I need to get somewhere specific I'll follow directions, but if I'm browsing then I don't learn much by looking down at a screen the whole time.
Last time I was in DC for a conference in Foggy Bottom I got a recommendation for a pizza shop a few blocks from my hotel. &pizza, not bad.
Next day I went to that general area and browsed around looking for a bar. Because I didn't just look up bars on Yelp I was able to distinguish the character of the places I walked around, like the feel of a neighborhood that primarily houses GWU students, and another that is for unreasonably wealthy urban homeowners.
tl;dr I get what I want from a maps app when I know what I want. If I don't know what I want, I go out and learn by experience.
Consider: When you are in a new city, when are you more likely to learn the city inside-out, when you don't have Google Maps, or when you do?