We were curious how the idea for 'Amazing Maps' came about in the first place. Georgi, the founder of the project, was kind enough to shed some light on this.
"In reality, I started the account primarily for fun, as a joke, inspired by other similar accounts on Instagram," he told Bored Panda in an email that this was "nothing special" at the time.
However, now, he's been focused on running 'Amazing Maps' for 5 years, an entire quarter of his life!
"What keeps me passionate [about map-making] is the fact that I see people actively engage with my content, the fact that I know I'm contributing to education and improving people's knowledge. I don't get paid anything for this hobby," he said.
"In the future, I'm planning on creating more reels and content in the form of videos, because sometimes just a map/post is not enough to convey all the necessary information in an engaging way," he told Bored Panda about his plans for 'Amazing Maps.'
We also wanted to get Georgi's perspective about the fundamental things that make a map truly great. "A great map is one which is easy to understand, conveys information in the most efficient way possible. There is a very fine balance between generalising too much, which results in a well-looking map but doesn't convey enough information to form a reasonable opinion on the subject," he said.
"It is always difficult to ensure that the maps you create are accurate. Some of the rules I go by are to not use sources older than 5 years (or 10 depending on the subject), always list the source (Wikipedia isn't as bad as people think), make sure to use accessible and good-looking colors and never put too much information on a single map, because you risk the viewer missing it out or being overwhelmed."
Media literacy has always been essential for becoming an educated, well-rounded, skeptical, critically thinking individual. However, in this day and age, its importance is greater now than ever.
What with the vast pace of information and misinformation in your social media feeds, biased and fake news stories floating everywhere, and the veritable flood of artificial intelligence-powered slop. Knowing what sources (not) to trust is vital.
If you’re anything like the average person, then you’ve got tons of daily responsibilities, from work and school to chores and parenting. All of those must-do activities eat up a ton of time and energy.
So, you don’t necessarily have the space to double-check and cross-reference every single fact, claim, and opinion you see or hear on the news and on social media.
A much better approach is to figure out what sources are reliable and then to trust them to get things right (most of the time).
Trustworthy outlets will back up their claims, provide links to the sources they used, and have proper editorial standards. They won’t ever present opinions as facts. And if they ever make a mistake (even the best journalists do from time to time), they’ll fix the mistake.
The best of the best will even mention that they’ve made a correction, so that they’re fully transparent. Furthermore, trustworthy sources will also disclose any conflicts of interest they might have.
You should definitely be wary of believing anything said by a source that you’re unfamiliar with.
If a fact or claim sounds too good or too bad to be true, search for it elsewhere, and see what other sources corroborate the story.
If there’s only one or two unknown sources claiming something, then it’s a good rule of thumb to assume that they’re either wrong, have an agenda they’re pursuing, or a narrative they want to push.
Take a look at the other news stories that the outlet and its journalists cover. Think about what their goals and biases might be, and how this is reflected in the headlines and photos they use, the angles they write about, and the facts they stress or omit.
‘Perfect’ neutrality and objectivity might be a pipe dream, but reliable news sources do their best to provide a nuanced, contextualized picture of events.
Real life is complex, messy, and much more gray than purely black-and-white.
Repetition, while great for building healthy habits and learning new things, is also one of your biggest foes if your goal is to uncover the truth. The reality is that human beings are more susceptible to believing that a claim is right the more it’s repeated.
This is known as the illusory truth effect. In a nutshell, the more exposed you are to a piece of info, the more you believe it. Even if those ‘facts’ go against what you’ve learned previously.
