Lab 3: Neography

As a junior, there were a lot of places that I now know about UCLA and Westwood that I wish that I would have heard about when I was a freshman. Of course, I knew about Diddy Riese and Aahs, but I didn't know any other places. In my interactive google map, I look at places that aren't as popular but worth a visit during the four years at school.

Before You Leave UCLA

View Before you leave UCLA in a larger map

Click on each of the markers to see which places that I think are the best places are to eat, watch movies and have dates. While the map starts on the UCLA campus, it does not matter where you start from, rather up to one's preference. However, I do recommend that you start at the beautiful sculpture garden if you are on a date, then walk your way down. I also recommend walking because Westwood is such a popular and small local, there isn't many places for free parking or even paid parking.

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.