Started in the very end of 2021, ‘Very Useful Maps’ has already amassed nearly 100k followers. In the Q&A section of the account’s Instagram highlights, the creator—a person with Czech and Italian roots—shared that there was nothing in particular that inspired them to start the account, they simply wanted to give it a go.

“I knew that map accounts existed and, well, on New Year's Eve, I decided ‘yeah, let’s do it and see how it will go’,” they wrote.

Discussing where they draw inspiration from for their maps, the mastermind behind the account revealed that it varies; sometimes an idea would pop up randomly and they would note it down for later use, but sometimes they would have to try and come up with something as they were working on the project.

“Sometimes it’s hard to come up with something, so I go for something that has been done [already], but I try to expand it,” they shared.

Seeking to learn more about maps and their significance, Bored Panda turned to an academic expert in cartography, map design and mapping environment-society interactions, Carolyn Fish, who agreed to share her insight on all things maps, starting with a little bit of history.

“There are a lot of arguments about when the first maps came to be, with some scholars arguing that maps in some form have existed since ancient Mesopotamia and others arguing that they are a more recent invention that goes back still hundreds of years, but not millennia,” she told Bored Panda.

“There are generally two types of maps: reference and thematic,” Fish continued. “The maps on the ‘Very Useful Maps’ Instagram account are thematic maps which are focused on showing data about a particular topic or theme, while reference maps are more general and are designed to help people navigate a place or identify where places are in relation to other places.

“The old road atlas you might have kept in your car, or the newer Google or Apple maps on your phone, are both examples of reference maps. Reference maps, I would argue, have existed for millennia. People have been taking their own mental maps of their world and putting that spatial information down in the dirt or later on paper for thousands of years.

“Thematic maps are considered far more recent inventions, and these maps have grown in popularity, especially in recent decades because we have access to so much data that it makes sense to represent that in a spatial form, i.e., a map,” the asst. prof. of geography explained.

We also discussed what makes people interested in such content as shared by ‘Very Useful Maps’, and according to the map expert, there are likely several factors at play here: 

“First, the data needs to be interesting. In the ‘Very Useful Map’ Instagram account the maps are primarily of thematic data, so assuring that the data that you are showing is something people would be interested in knowing is important,” Fish suggested.

“Second, aesthetics are really important, especially on platforms like Instagram. While the platform has changed a lot over the years from moving away from static photos, the accounts that still focus on those static images have always been thinking about how aesthetics are key to getting followers. Maps can be beautiful and I think focusing on sharing beautiful maps is vital to growing a following.”

“I’m definitely biased, but I love learning how all sorts of topics vary across space. And how something varies across space is typically best represented in a map,” Fish told Bored Panda. “I also think that one of the more interesting things to map is the connection between human geography (how things involving people vary across space) and physical geography (how the natural world varies across space). For instance, human settlement often follows natural features, and I think that is fascinating.”

“Whenever I tell people I study maps, I usually hear one of two responses. Sometimes it’s ‘Hasn’t the whole world been mapped already?’, but more often it is ‘Whoa! That’s cool! I love looking at maps!’ I think this tells me that there is a large untapped population out there who would love to follow accounts on social media that show spatial information in a beautiful way,” the expert said, addressing the popularity of map-related content online.

While some of the maps on this list, such as the one depicting Europeans’ views on pineapple pizza, for instance, are more of a source of entertainment rather than geographic knowledge, information presented in fun ways can actually be a pretty great way to learn.

Thanks to technology, people nowadays have access to all sorts of engaging ways to learn new information, from games to cartoons, and beyond. While for some people, reading a book can be equally exciting, for those finding it easier to focus on something more colorful, vivid or interactive, it can be a game changer in learning.

Be it in a digital form or not, maps can help people learn not only all about certain geographic areas but about links between different cultures, too.

“While personal experience with other social groups and cultures is the pinnacle of building mutual understanding between groups, maps are a great way for people to begin to understand the world around them, including the differences (and similarities) across different cultures and groups. And getting access to maps, especially for those of us in the Global North, is easier than traveling all around the world, nevermind that it is more climate friendly,” Asst. Prof. Carolyn Fish suggested.

While all sorts of maps can clearly be great ways of learning new information, according to Fish, it’s important to view them with a healthy dose of skepticism. “Just like we need to have a healthy skepticism of the news we read, we also need to maintain that skepticism with maps as well.

“There is a great book called ‘How to Lie with Maps’ by Mark Monmonier which talks about the ability to easily manipulate data and information to tell different stories in maps. A lot of my recent research has explored how people might be doing this with climate change maps. Humans have this tendency to trust maps more than they trust other information, so just being cognizant of our biases is helpful when viewing maps these days.

“My research has shown that typically there is not ill-intention on the part of the mapmaker, but we, as map readers, should all be looking at maps and thinking: about where the data comes from, who had a stake in creating it, what mistakes could have been made in the creation of the map, and how was the data made into information that is viewable in this type of graphic.”