{"id":5545,"date":"2017-10-30T12:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-10-30T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=5545"},"modified":"2017-10-30T17:48:39","modified_gmt":"2017-10-30T21:48:39","slug":"bad-internet-maps-a-social-media-plague","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/bad-internet-maps-a-social-media-plague\/","title":{"rendered":"Bad Internet Maps: ‘A Social Media Plague’"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Business Insider<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Business Insider<\/em>\u2019s\u00a0widely mocked, since-deleted-from-Twitter, but very very viral map of the most popular fast food restaurants by state<\/a> is the launching-off point for The Ringer<\/em>\u2019s Claire McNear, who rants about the maps clogging the Internet<\/a> that are stupid, uninformed, wrong and exist only to generate clicks. Among other things, she writes:<\/p>\n

The map is bad, is my point, and obviously bad, and I sincerely wish that we didn\u2019t have to talk about it. But we do. Because maps like this one aren\u2019t merely birdbrained schlock: They are a social media plague, a scourge that can reduce just about any social network to gibbering in-fights in the space of a few virally shared minutes. We\u2019re all susceptible; we\u2019re all defenseless. A dumb internet map with incendiary falsehoods is coming for all of us, and there is just about nothing we can do to stop it.<\/p>\n

The formula goes something like this: Map plus declaration of definitive statewide preference equals profit. Profit here means eyeballs or clicks or reshares or, most likely, some combination of all three, especially the last one, because it turns out that there are few sentiments more appealing than Oy, check out the terrible things the cretins in [Bad State] get up to<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Consider some other recent viral highlights. \u201cThis Map Shows What People Hate the Most in Each State<\/a>\u201d (using data from a brand-new dating app that no one outside a handful<\/a>\u00a0of<\/a>\u00a0stunt<\/a>\u00a0pieces<\/a> seems to have used, and which was obviously trying to drum up interest). There are maps showing states\u2019 Favorite Holiday Movies<\/a> and Favorite Reality TV Show<\/a> and Favorite Romantic Comedy<\/a> (using an arbitrarily arrived at<\/a> combination of AMC user ratings\u2014what?<\/a>\u2014and Google Trends data). \u201cThis Map Shows the Most Popular Food in Every State<\/a>\u201d (using Pinterest recipes specifically selected<\/a> for their range). Even The New York Times<\/em> has gotten awfully close to its own Map of Dubious Adorations, publishing a 50-state anthology of Thanksgiving classics<\/a> in 2014, in which the effort to differentiate by state yielded questionable dishes like \u201cgrape salad.\u201d<\/p>\n

The truth is we\u2019re all very boring, and our preferences aren\u2019t all that different.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Worth reading in full.<\/p>\n

The problem is that even though their methodologies are shoddy and their conclusions are dubious, clickbaity maps like these are\u00a0popular<\/em>. The competition for attention is fierce, and maps are a quick and dirty way of generating traffic. My traffic skyrockets whenever I post a link to something even remotely like these maps (xkcd is usually a safe bet), and if I resorted to posting maps like these all the time, I’d be making\u00a0much<\/em> more money at this. But I wouldn’t be able to look myself in the mirror.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Business Insider\u2019s\u00a0widely mocked, since-deleted-from-Twitter, but very very viral map of the most popular fast food restaurants by state is the launching-off point for The Ringer\u2019s Claire McNear, who rants about the maps clogging the Internet… More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[233],"tags":[1000,1001,349],"class_list":["post-5545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-unusual-maps","tag-bad-maps","tag-clickbait","tag-social-media","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1167,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/03\/when-maps-lie\/","url_meta":{"origin":5545,"position":0},"title":"When Maps Lie","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 March 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Andrew Wiseman's \"When Maps Lie\" was posted on CityLab last year, but its importance is evergreen: it's about map literacy, and how to avoid being fooled by confusing, misleading or simply bad maps. This is very much what Mark Monmonier did in\u00a0How to Lie with Maps\u00a0(see my review;\u00a0Amazon,\u00a0iBooks); Wiseman updates\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1811579,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2023\/01\/one-bad-map-a-day-in-february\/","url_meta":{"origin":5545,"position":1},"title":"‘One Bad Map a Day in February’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 January 2023","format":"link","excerpt":"It\u2019s like the #30daymapchallenge in November, in which mapmakers are challenged to make a map a day on a given daily theme, only the reverse: the MapFailbruaryChallenge is about making a bad map on a given daily theme. \u201cThe idea is to create the worst map possible.\u201d Bad maps happen;\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"#mapfailbruarychallenge: a list of categories to create one bad map a day in February.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mapfailbruarychallenge-1024x579.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mapfailbruarychallenge-1024x579.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mapfailbruarychallenge-1024x579.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mapfailbruarychallenge-1024x579.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2709,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/08\/a-problem-with-population-density-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":5545,"position":2},"title":"A Problem with Population Density Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"29 August 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Reddit user joostjakob posted the above map to MapPorn with the\u00a0following caption: \"Why population density maps are hard to read: exactly the same amount of people live in the black and in the blue areas.\" [Maps on the Web]","rel":"","context":"In "Cartography"","block_context":{"text":"Cartography","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/cartography\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"euro-pop-density","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/euro-pop-density.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/euro-pop-density.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/euro-pop-density.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":4860,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/09\/the-territory-is-not-the-map\/","url_meta":{"origin":5545,"position":3},"title":"The Territory Is Not the Map","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 September 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"Critiques of fantasy maps have more to do with the shortcomings of fantasy worlds than the maps that depict them.","rel":"","context":"In "Book Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"From Jared Blando, How to Draw Fantasy Art and RPG Maps (Impact, 2015).","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/09\/blando-example.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":5187,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/10\/the-perplexing-river-systems-of-middle-earth\/","url_meta":{"origin":5545,"position":4},"title":"‘The Perplexing River Systems of Middle-earth’","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"11 October 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Having ruffled fannish feathers with a post critiquing Middle-earth's mountains and another admitting that\u00a0they don't like fantasy maps, Alex Acks returns with a Tor.com post about the problems with Middle-earth's river systems. Specifically, the Anduin, which breaks all kinds of hydrological rules: it cuts across mountain ranges (and parallels the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Maps and Literature"","block_context":{"text":"Maps and Literature","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/maps-and-literature\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1789027,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/07\/georgias-covid-19-maps-bad-faith-or-bad-design\/","url_meta":{"origin":5545,"position":5},"title":"Georgia\u2019s COVID-19 Maps: Bad Faith or Bad Design?","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"18 July 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"In How to Lie with Maps, Mark Monmonier warns that map readers \u201cmust watch out for statistical maps carefully contrived to prove the points of self-promoting scientists, manipulating politicians, misleading advertisers, and other propagandists. Meanwhile, this is an area in which the widespread use of mapping software has made unintentional\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/dph-ga-screencap-twitter-1024x577.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/dph-ga-screencap-twitter-1024x577.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/dph-ga-screencap-twitter-1024x577.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/07\/dph-ga-screencap-twitter-1024x577.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5551,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions\/5551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}