Arielle Velarde

In regards to recent influencer interviews, many people have been stunted by simple questions regarding the geography of the United States.

Every so often, I come across one of those TikToks where random people are asked to point out a country on a blank world map. The interviewer will say, “Can you find France?” or “Where’s Japan?” and the person hesitates, laughs nervously, and points somewhere totally off. Everyone in the comments has a good time roasting them, but after watching enough of those videos, it is hard not to notice what they really show how disconnected a lot of people are from the rest of the world.

It is not entirely their fault. Geography has quietly faded from the spotlight in schools. According to World Atlas, geography is the scientific field that examines Earth’s physical and biological features, along with how humans interact with their environment. Most of us learned about continents and capitals years ago, but by high school, geography barely shows up. It might get squeezed into a history lesson or an occasional map activity, but it is rarely treated as something that matters on its own. The 2018 Nation’s Report Card, administered by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), showed that eighth graders scored lower on average than those tested in 2014. By 2022, scores in both history and civics had continued to decline, with 40 percent of eighth-grade students performing “below basic” proficiency in history. This growing lapse in our knowledge of social studies has big consequences for how we see the world and the people who live in it.

Geography explains how places shape people and how people shape places. It helps us understand why cities form where they do, why some nations prosper while others struggle and how borders and resources affect global relationships. Without that understanding, world events start to feel random–just headlines about “somewhere else.”

If someone mentions Gaza, Ukraine or Sudan, and you cannot imagine where those countries are or what their environment looks like, the stories coming out of them start to feel abstract. But once you know their geography–their neighbors, climate or history–it becomes harder to look away. Geography turns names into real places, and people into real communities. It gives us perspective, and perspective builds empathy.

What is strange is that this growing lack of global awareness is happening during the most connected time in human history. With a phone, we can instantly see videos from almost anywhere. I have watched clips of people in Kenya harvesting crops, students in Japan showing their school lunches and hikers in Iceland walking on glaciers. It is incredible that we can witness those moments so easily, but without some background knowledge of where those people are or what their lives are shaped by, the connection stays surface-level. We see the world, but we do not understand it.

Geography connects the dots between environment, culture and politics. It reminds us that the world is a system, not a collection of isolated places. That is why it is disappointing that geography has been pushed to the sidelines in education. It is not just a subject about maps–it is a way of thinking critically about the planet we share. A solid understanding of geography can help us make sense of climate change, global inequality, migration and conflict. When people know the “where” and “why” behind world events, they are more likely to care.
Those TikTok geography challenge videos might seem harmless, but they are a reflection of something larger: How easy it has become to live in our own bubbles. Maybe if geography were treated as essential again fewer of those videos would end in confusion and more in conversation.

The least we can do is try to learn where things are, how they fit together and why that matters. Maybe then, when we see a story from across the world, it will no longer feel so far away.