Assignment #6: Map Distortions

While I found both readings to be quite interesting in their analysis of how maps are distorted by their creators and for what purposes, Jason Farman's discussion of postmodern cartography really made me think about how the "digital empire" plays a role in what people see on maps. With the expansive technology at hand today, it seems entirely possible to create a digital replication of any area down to the square inch without distorting it. However, the motives behind who is creating the map tend to change it in a way that emphasizes certain points of interests and leaves others incomplete or missing entirely. This is similar to Harley's claim that maps were "weapons of imperialism" and  "tools of exploitation" used to create empires. The ability of the map creator to define boundaries and emphasize land control is seemingly more powerful than actually controlling the land itself. In our society, companies can impose their dominance by making their own maps and changing them in a pleasing way for their business. For example, I remember being in Portland last summer and a small stand had free maps of the city that showed businesses and restaurants. However, many of the small-scale local businesses were not shown and instead an overwhelming number of Starbucks took up much of the map. It seemed clear that Starbucks had played some role in this map development and therefore made it appear to tourists that there were no other coffee shops in Portland besides the ones owned by this major franchise.

In the digital world, maps can be graphically reproduced or they may utilize real, satellite images such as with Google Earth, who Farman argues does have some misconceptions surrounding it. The reason this program has not faced many critiques about its attempt to "represent reality" is that real images are often thought to be valid and free from questioning, whereas drawn maps are believed to be inherently faulted. This discussion on Google Earth made me think of a new application I've noticed on Facebook called "Places" which allows users to "check-in" at specific locations and let their friends know where they are throughout the day. Businesses are getting involved in this application for the obvious reasons that exposure on the Facebook app will bring more consumers to their stores. Invasion of privacy aside, this app has the possibly even more serious threat of skewing our views of the world around us. If we look at our phones and see that the street we're on has two McDonald's and seven Starbucks coming up in the next three blocks, but then drive those same three blocks only to find that several local coffee stands and burger joints also exist, it would seem that the application has lied to us by limiting our options to those businesses that could afford to get their name in Facebook's app. This type of distortion is based on the difference between major and local businesses, who have varying abilities to access consumers. I feel like digital map distortion is the current problem we're facing and we can learn a great deal from past empire's who have distorted maps to steal and claim land that didn't belong to them.