Nowadays when talk about map, the first things that come to your mind has to be various navigation applications installed in our smartphones. They are easy to use, free of charge and most importantly they provide the most accurate routes that are available. It is perfect, almost. Now imagine being in the time when our parents are in their early 20s. There was no smartphones, let alone navigation applications powered by artificial satellites flying around the planet earth 24/7. You needed to travel to somewhere we have never been before and all you got were a paper map and a flip phone. You traced the lines of road with your finger (not recommended when driving) while putting your father on speaker mode with flip phone to be your guide. As you finally got to your destination after asking three total strangers for direction, surprisingly none of which turned you down. Pretty amazing, right? Remember the neighborhood you used to live in when you were 10 years old as you went back to the area by accident and were not able to local the old house where you spent your childhood in. Suddenly you smelled a familiar scent of food from distance. You decided to follow the way the scent led you. The scent became stronger as you approached to a restaurant—the hotpot place where you and your parents used to go every week, just right by your old house. You went into the restaurant and looked around the decors, nothing has changed. The owner of the restaurant, an auntie in her 60s saw you and smiled happily as she recognized you, turned out you did not change much either. Recall the time when you were 6 years old, you and your mother went to a new supermarket. You were thrilled because you had never saw so many snacks and toys ever before. As you walked past two shelves, or maybe more, you realized you lost your way in all colorful things and your mother was nowhere to be found. You started to cry when you ran from shelves to shelves and could not find your mother. And then you heard the PA called your name and asked you to reported to the cashier. You wiped off your tears and ran to the cashier. Your mother was anxiously waiting for you. You bursted into tears as your mother hugged you. All of these scenarios involve the concept of mapping and yet they are so different from the traditional means of maps. The visual representations of a location are definitely important in contemporary story telling however as Cosgrove suggested the visual mapping could sometimes be hegemonic in the sense that visuals can not always demonstrates the spatiality in communication entirely, especially for differently abled people.
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