Proletarians of all Facebook accounts, unite!
Now that Japan’s terrible earthquake is at an emotionally safe distance, I’ll pull out the drawer and pick up a somewhat funny subject that’s been gathering dust for over four months.
Poor knowledge of world geography in the U.S. is common knowledge. “Where are you from,” I often hear from people confused by my accent. Often, Armenia proves to be insufficient as an answer. Years ago, when someone in the State of Georgia asked me to clarify “where the hell” that was, I said: “It’s to the south of Georgia, the country.” “Is it in Florida?” “No. Do you know Turkey?” “Sure, I do. I just had it for lunch.”
For years, the American authorities and think-tanks have been raising this issue and offering solutions. But this one appeared to me as the most absurd: “Officials say study abroad program could help students become more informed about the world.” Funny, isn’t it? I had barely been outside my hometown by age 5 when I knew all the capitals of the European and Asian countries by heart. And I knew at least half a dozen of my kindergarten fellows who could repeat that feat. The answer is – get a world map, duh!
And some of them did… Two days following the massive earthquake that hit Japan on March 11, 2011, the official Facebook page posted the world map showing “how news of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan spread on Facebook via status messages” (such a typical Facebook status update, originally posted on the Global Disaster Relief on Facebook page). Below is a screenshot of that map (see the original): Continue reading
