• MBM@lemmings.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    I wonder if a news community with a “no mentioning the US” rule would work. Not out of any hate, just as something arbitrary like “don’t use the letter E”.

    • Maggoty@lemmy.world
      0·
      2 years ago

      There was one on Reddit that had a rule that no more than 50% of a story could be about the US and if the US was one of two parties they preferred the other point of view.

  • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
    0·
    2 years ago

    Tbf it seemed to make more sense for the likes of Reddit, Facebook, etc. Similarly if I go to a Chinese forum I would not assume that everyone there was from the USA.

    • MudMan@fedia.io
      0·
      2 years ago

      I’ve heard this more times, and it’s kind of baffling. The US isn’t even the biggest individual country on Facebook. What do people who assume everyone is from the US think a non-US “forum” looks like? Where do Americans think everybody else hangs out online?

      • Graphy@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 years ago

        As a US citizen I think we forget how much of our shit gets out.

        I’m always surprised when I go abroad and people are up to date with somewhat niche US info. I was in Hong Kong and some local dude made a reference to the fatass NJ gov who was chilling on the closed beach during lockdowns.

        I do feel like I see far more people complaining about US people making assumptions than I do US people assuming. When I’m replying to someone I don’t put any thought into where they’re from unless they drop a context clue.

        • wieson@feddit.org
          0·
          2 years ago

          Note: this is just for your understanding, I’m not criticising you.

          It’s the little things, like using NJ as a short form assuming everyone to know. Hong Kong is arguably more well known globally, but you spelled it out.

          The ones in the know often don’t see the assumption.

          • MudMan@fedia.io
            0·
            2 years ago

            This is true. I wonder how often people assume and don’t think anything of it because it doesn’t even register that they may not be correct.

            That said, I once did have a long conversation here with someone who just straight-up refused to believe I’m not American and would not take my word for it. I never quite got why he believed I’d be lying about that, but that person would not be persuaded, and it was one of the most baffling interactions I’ve had in my life.

      • Altima NEO@lemmy.zipEnglish
        0·
        2 years ago

        Given how many people choose to speak their native language in the US (myself included), I guess they assume they post to forums that are in their language.

        • MudMan@fedia.io
          0·
          2 years ago

          So like Facebook and Reddit? Social media isn’t in English specifically. People who speak other languages often post in their native language for some things and in the lingua franca for more international conversations. The Internet is the Internet regardless.

        • MudMan@fedia.io
          0·
          2 years ago

          I am fairly sure that the rest of the world already existed. And those formats keep being in use in newer places, too. This is not just a Reddit thing. Even you mentioned Facebook, which was instantly popular globally.

          • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
            0·
            2 years ago

            I am fairly sure that the rest of the world already existed.

            No way - at least not back then! Source: am American, and therefore entirely confident that no other nations existed prior to my hearing about them (Christopher Columbus told me so! 😛). And maybe even then… which reminds me, are you so sure that you are real? Maybe you too are in America and just forgot? 🫠

            Also, just so we are clear, “American” = “USAian”, definitely no other nations exist on the American continent, nope, no way! (Except Canada and Mexico, and they get a pass as wannabe USA states) 😜

          • imaqtpie@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
            0·
            2 years ago

            instantly popular globally

            There are 8 billion people on this planet, nothing happens instantly.

            Facebook took a long time to spread around the globe. Same for reddit, this is a quote from the Wikipedia article:

            As of August 2024, Reddit is the 9th most-visited website in the world. According to data provided by Similarweb, 51.75% of the website traffic comes from the United States, followed by the United Kingdom at 7.15% and Canada at 7.09%.[6]

            More than two thirds of reddit traffic still comes from Anglophone countries to this day, and that percentage was surely much higher back in the early days.

            I think you’re severely overestimating how many people from other countries actually use Western social media. Between the language barrier and the technology barrier, most people on this planet simply don’t have any opportunity or desire to use a site like Reddit or Lemmy. Facebook has slowly but steadily made global inroads, but by the time it got popular in non-western countries, Americans had largely moved on.

            • MudMan@fedia.io
              0·
              2 years ago

              … I am a non-anglophone who, at the time of Facebook’s raise to social media dominance lived in multiple non-anglophone countries. I was there.

              In one of the places I lived there was briefly a popular local Facebook alternative. It lasted maybe a couple of years before entirely capitulating and getting absorbed. That place does still have a local Reddit-like alternative, and Reddit is certainly more US-centric. You are right that Facebook stayed popular much longer outside the US. It has started falling off in some of those places, but I did keep a Facebook account for work purposes for a lot longer than you’d expect because work relations in those territories would share Facebook credentials as a way to establish professional contact. Twitter may as well have been a lost ancient civilization, though.

              There’s also a lot to unpack in the assumption that on a thread about “why do Americans default to assuming everyone is from the US” you’re reflexively lumping the entire anglosphere as part of the US, but honestly, I’ll let the recently annexed English-speaking countries deal with that one on their own.

              • imaqtpie@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
                0·
                2 years ago

                That’s interesting, thanks for sharing. I don’t mean to diminish your experience, but the world is simply too massive for anecdotal knowledge to apply when attempting to make sense of it. In other words, it’s impossible to gather a balanced understanding of global phenomena via primary experiences. I’m not as well traveled as you, but I’m analyzing the statistics rather than relying on personal experiences, which is much more informative when trying to recognize the big picture.

                I’m not reflexively lumping anything in, I’m simply recognizing the reality that the cultural life of anglosphere countries is heavily mixed, and that US culture dominates that mixture due to its size and economic position. It’s not a controversial statement to say that Canada and the US are peas in a pod.

                I left the original assumption unchallenged, but I don’t agree with it tbh. There are a ton of Europeans on Lemmy and also reddit, and it’s quite obvious to notice as an American. Furthermore, the entire premise is faulty. Rather than ask why people default to the US, the question is why people are assuming anything at all about anonymous accounts. And the answer is because of human nature, which isn’t something unique to Americans.

                • MudMan@fedia.io
                  0·
                  2 years ago

                  Well, yeah, but it’s not anecdotal. There is data to tell you how big Facebook is and was outside the US, in what territories and by how much relative to their US popularity at what point. My personal experience just happens to match those numbers (India, by the way, is Facebook’s current biggest market).

                  I would also point out that by your own data, which is accurate as far as I can tell, 49% of Reddit is not American, so even with its more US-focused audience the assumption that users are American unless proven otherwise is wildly ethnocentric.

                  Now, I agree with you that assuming things about anonymous accounts, and especially anonymous accounts writing in English, is foolish. Lots of people are fluent in English who are not native speakers and definitely who are not from the US. Most, in fact, depending on how you define your parameters.

                  I disagree that this is “human nature”, though. I don’t assume the same thing from people who speak my native language online. I also don’t assume the same thing about English speakers. The reason the OP is asking is that US ethnocentrism stands out. That’s not to say it’s not natural. We non-native dwellers in anglocentric social media will often comment on US cultural and political minutia, because US cultural and political minutia is present and relevant to us in a way ours isn’t to Americans (thanks for that, cultural imperialism). We pass for Americans in more situations than some American lurking in a German-language forum would, and we’re likely many times more numerous than… well, Americans lurking in German-language or Chinese-language socials.

                  But it being natural doesn’t mean it isn’t notable or an issue or a symptom of a dysfunction. Which it is, and it does annoy me for that reason.

  • merari42@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    Howdy y’all bros. My name is Todd Bonzalez and I am from one of the great American places foreigners know from your TV shows.

      • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
        0·
        2 years ago

        Minitel launched in 1982, well after work had begun on interconnections between different computer networks, using the predecessor protocols to TCP/IP and what would become the addressing/domain name system. Minitel launched on protocols that were ultimately incompatible with the rest of the Internet, and didn’t have an easy way to actually get joined in.

        Minitel was more of an alternative internet than it was the inspiration for the migration of the internet to becoming a HTTP/www-centered network.

    • ℍ𝕂-𝟞𝟝@sopuli.xyzEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      I’d just like to mention that plenty of ESL users speak English more than their native, and that the country with the most people who use English for interacting with the Internet, it’s probably India. Indians communicate to a lot of their compatriots in English, since they are also an ex-British colony, and have a large variety of native languages.

    • Ziglin (it/they)@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      What’s your definition of first/second language if you grow up bilingual?

      The majority of English speakers aren’t from the US, though the US does have the most English speakers. Important distinction to make!

    • Whorehoarder@lemmynsfw.comEnglish
      0·
      2 years ago

      That sounds like America’s problem. Big portion of western eu, especially non-boomer and non-french, comprehend English very well, so I dunno why you’d just dismiss it in a post about us-defaultism when almost everything is text based

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
    0·
    2 years ago

    As an American who just wants things organized clearly, I find it annoying too