Maps

Maps are one of those basic types of information resources that we all count on like the phone book or the dictionary. But there is something elegant about a map that elevates it above just a way to see where stuff is. It isn’t uncommon to see maps represented artistically as wall hangings in homes or even in museums. Maps appeal the organizational side of us. When you look at a map, the quiet message is that the world was not an orderly place but now it is. And as civilized people, that comforts us.

How often have you been on a trip and the driver asks you to find out something on the map? You fold out that big map of the state you are in and then refold it so you can just look at the section where you are and where you are going. So you find the information that was asked of you but something else happens. You find yourself continuing to look at the map following roads along to see where they go. You get amused at the names of little towns and that makes you wonder about the types of communities that might be there. You can easily get lost in a map and pass hours letting it capture your imagination in ways that few other simple tools we use can do.

The popularity of maps as sources of entertainment has been illustrated by the explosion of maps that are tied in with satellite imagery like Google maps. This is one of several online applications that allow you to chart a coarse from one location to the next using digital imagery. You can then click on a zoom function and get closer and closer to the location you are studying until you are looking at the alleys and side streets of a neighborhood. But it doesn’t stop there. With another click you can bring up an actual view of the street you are interested in as though you were looking through a camera. You can navigate the street like you were driving on it and explore the area around your destination all from the comfort of your computer.

In this modern age, you would think that the rise of GPS systems would make maps obsolete. But that has not been the outcome at all. Maps are just as popular as ever. With a map you can be the one that decides what the best route is and in the same glance locate other interesting points of interest along the way. This means that no matter what high tech toys are invented to help us get along, we will never be willing to give u p the good old fashioned map.