If I was using a website called “Facebloke” that was well known to have been made and ran in the UK, I’d assume everyone on it was British.
Ah, yes! The 3 billion Americans on Facebook!
And why would you make that assumption? The internet has no borders, so it doesn’t really matter where or by whom something is made. Especially if the language is English, which has somewhere between 1.5 and 2 billion speakers worldwide.
“Facebloke”
More like Faceberk, amirite?
Yes, I saw that. But it is obviously meant to be an analogy for how Facebook is a website famously made in America by an American.
The internet has no borders
Except that it actually does. See: China, North Korea, other fucked up governments that lock down the Internet for their people etc.
I’m ready to discuss maple syrup on HoserLoonieSorryEh
Or the Australian version “Matebook”, full with Aussies.
Mate.
We call it Cuntface down here.
To be fair, we call everyone Cuntface down here.
deleted by creator
I mean, we did invent this cursed network. It’s our job to ruin it.
One day, we will shitpost our way to freedom
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”.
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.
Maybe you should try posting more often then ;)
The SMX “World Championship” just finished. It only takes place in the US.
network invented in America look inside Americans
How could this have happened?
I hear you and am guilty of it myself. I feel like it’s due to the anonymous nature of the internet. I think everyone immediately falls into the category of “peer” before putting a touch more thought into who the actual person (bot/ai) is that wrote the reply. Add that to the fact that most Americans see themselves (as a country) as the king of the world.
Maybe you can try typing with an accent, but I think that’d probably just be seen as a racist American.
I’m not even American, I find my thoughts defaulting to this.
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.
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?
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.
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.
NOW, but when Reddit started, and therefore the now infamous subreddit names were first doled out?
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.
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) 😜
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.
… 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Eh that seems like a major stretch. NJ used above was prefaced with “somewhat niche US info”
I even replaced what the guy said which was Chris Christie with NJ gov because I hardly expected anyone abroad to know him
I feel like if we’re going to start thinking that someone’s putting the ass in assumption just because they used something others might not understand then we’re in trouble
You’d have to kill off any slang or expressions for fear that people might not understand them
Jimmy Eat USA
Bleed Earthlings
You mean anything with
outworld in its name?Sorry, anything with or without / everything not ich_iel
What? Like the World Series of Baseball?
The name fits, it’s just that the only people in the world who give a shit about baseball are from the USA.
Well that’s just not true, you should check out the World baseball Classic, it’ll open your eyes.
Japan would like a word, but otherwise, fair enough
Puerto Rico and Cuba also love baseball.
Hell, in Cuba standing around arguing about baseball is a recognized profession.
HE WAS SAFE!!!
This is lemmy.world, you would have to join lemmy.{country} for lands beyond the fruited plains and purple mountains majesty.
…Anything written in English, and you can usually filter that even more by just looking for people using too many U’s.
And when you do use those ⟨U⟩ (I do), people assume that you know what’s going on in the UK (I don’t.).
people using too many U’s
You mean people using British spellings right?
Why whateveur dou you mean?
I read this like officer crabtree from Allo Allo
Lol ngl that’s probably how a French accent would look like spelt out XD
Agreed, reading this summoned the SpongeBob narrator in my mind.
One day if we are brave, we will get rid of the U in a lot of British words like color and armor, but by God we will keep the British U in the word glamour!
I think you’ll find most of the time the British use precisely the number U’s they intend to though typos may afflict even the best.
What if i use “color”, " gouvernment", “dialogue”, " humor", “armor”, " and “honour”
Self leart second language, so it could be anything.
Im gonna assume youre from the coast of Virginia and are transcribing your accent.
Finally your edumacashun is compleute, go fourth and enjouy your freedumb! 😜
I’d think ‘who’s this foucker?’
I see you like to keep 'em guessing.
and an aversion to Zees - I mean Zeds!
It does make it fun to stir the pot
its just the loudest voices that seem to drive the world.
As someone outside the U.S., what is your default persona for anonymous/pseudonymous users until you know more about them? Just curious. Like, if you don’t have any information about them, do you read the words in the voice of a person just like you?
I don’t read words in any voice other than the naturally subvocalisation that occurs when I’m reading, which is always in my voice.
Even when I read a quote myself Morgan Freeman, I’m hearing my voice, doing a Morgan freeman impression.
But in terms of who I picture? Nothing, people online are not even corporal beings to me until details are revealed. They are still human and have whole lives offline so that’s not an excuse to be needlessly rude, but I know nothing of them so why would I randomly invent details unless I’m doing so as a “put myself in their shoes” thought experiment.
But then I have a degree of aphantasia so I’m not “picturing” anything, all I have is words anyway, so it’s easy not to add in extra words that change my assumptions about a person.
I default to everyone sounding like Macho Man Randy Savage.
Oh yeah!
