50 Fun And Surprisingly Insightful Maps Shared By ‘Amazing Maps’

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).