In the 1990’s and 2000s, the dominant parent was GIS. It taught people to ask “where”. It gave the framework to analyze patterns, plan cities and navigate the physical world. It was the invisible hand behind logistics environmental science and infrastructure. G.I.S was the quiet and authority that structured our reality.
Today, the dominant “parent” is social media. It teaches us ‘who’ and ‘what’. It shapes our opinions, our self- worth and our connection to others. It is the loud ever-present voice in our pocket, dictating trends and truths in real- time.
The question for professionals is “what happens when the parent changes. We carry the spatial logic of G.I.S into a world governed by the emotional algorithms of social media. The challenge and the opportunity are to use the structured thinking of the past to navigate the chaotic connectivity of the present.
For social media teaches us about perception and lacks the grounding principles of its predecessor. All father G.I.S, shows us the world as it is where social media shows us the world as we want to see it. We need the empathy and connection of social media with the truth and structure of G.I.S.
To say, one gave us spatial intelligence. The other gave us social anxiety. The question remains, are you child of the G.I.S era or are you adapting to the social media age? Perhaps we need both.
About the Author
I believe geospatial data should work for everyone not just the experts. Pursued a BSc Honors in Geoinformatics and Environmental Conservation at Chinhoyi University of Technology. During my internship at Freda Rebecca Gold Mine, I worked across survey, GIS, and environmental compliance.
I operated DGPS Trimble RTK 4, built geological base maps, conducted risk assessments, and ensured adherence to ISO 45001:2018 safety standards. I learned that data is only valuable when it becomes decisions. That realization led me to start EasyMakersSolutions. The goal is simple simplify the
complex. The geospatial world is full of powerful features coordinate systems, projections, remote
sensing, machine learning but too often, they stay locked inside technical silos. EasyMakersSolutions is my
way of changing that.
I help individuals, researchers, and small organizations turn spatial data into clear,
actionable dashboards and decision-support tools and an obsession with making the complex
understandable.