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Neogeography
Neogeography is an awesome way for unexperienced users such as myself to use geographical techniques like maps for personal and community activities. For me, I think that neogeography helps for people who aren't as adventurous in new locales to go and eat at the best places and find the best entertainment while avoiding the tourist crowd. It saves time by allowing us to go directly to one spot, and also prevents us from wasting money at places that were horrible. I can use this to share information to millions of people around the world and talk about places I have been while at the same time, look up places that I want to visit, that other people uploaded.
For me personally, it gives a sense of security in knowing where I need to go and where I should avoid. Neogeography ultimately provides people with an expanded view of not just the world, but our community and reveals to us places that we wouldn't have actively gone out to look for. Neogeography essentially created a community where we can all share information, photos, experiences, and potentially unites strangers with same experience tied to a geographical location.
The negative aspect about neogeography is that we lose a sense of adventure when walking through a new place and a sense of achievement or satisfaction when discovering a new local scene. It also gathers people into only a specific places which narrows the experience of interacting with a community. While trying to go to all the places that other people recommended, I could potentially miss out on all the small gems that I would have thought were awesome, where others have recommended where horrendous. Another downside to neogeography is the all too openly available information online. With people posting, it is all to easy to see where people have been and what they like to do. While it is required for information to be public, private life becomes obscured and like all things, posting online can be potentially dangerous.
