• OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
    185·
    1 month 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
      123·
      1 month 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?

        • MudMan@fedia.io
          3·
          1 month 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
            3·
            1 month 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
            2·
            1 month 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
              4·
              1 month 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
                1·
                1 month 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
                  3·
                  1 month 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.

      • Altima NEO@lemmy.zipEnglish
        5·
        1 month 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
          4·
          1 month 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.

  • MBM@lemmings.world
    12·
    1 month 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”.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
    132·
    1 month ago

    There are tons of tankie subs where you can masturbate to false expectations of the planet and openly hate people who you’ve never met before, check it out!

    • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
      81·
      1 month ago

      To be honest I also find myself assuming this frequently. And I’m rarely incorrect

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
        32·
        1 month ago

        Yup, if it’s English-language, it’s probably American unless otherwise noted

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
          51·
          1 month ago

          Weird to go into a website based in the States, with a large audience of Americans, all speaking in the American dialect of English primarily about events in US news and politics, and then get mad because it’s America-centric.

  • JoYo@lemmy.mlEnglish
    9·
    1 month ago

    i live in DC and we get tagged for everything world politics.

    forgive me for not caring if fvey countries get lumped into uspol.

  • AA5B@lemmy.world
    7·
    1 month ago

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

  • Henry@lemmy.ca
    73·
    1 month ago

    Don’t be so self-involved. Try visit China for once and you will get sick of the word “China”, it’s literally in everything there :), like communist party’s intelligence service :)

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
    52·
    1 month ago

    I completely understand the sentiment.

    I also understand the sentiment that the internet is effectively a US invention dating back at least to ARPAnet.

    I guess what I’m suggesting is: can’t we all just get along? At least we can now all communicate with each other.

    • wieson@feddit.org
      121·
      1 month ago

      We are trying to get along. We are already speaking English, which is a massive step in your direction. US commenters and posters don’t even bother to convert to kilometres or something. Or the worst: write about something that happened in AK as if everyone knows postal shortages of the US.

      • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
        6·
        1 month ago

        The crazy irony is that those from outside the US probably know way more than those in the US, in terms of stories about Alaska.

        No hate here. There will be ups and downs.

        At the end of the day, I’m happy to communicate with you.

      • imaqtpie@lemmy.myserv.oneEnglish
        3·
        1 month ago

        Don’t ever talk about kilometres in here. Are you trying to spark an international incident?

        FWIW ich habe Deustch gelernt. Aber ich habe die meistens vergessen 😔

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
        22·
        1 month ago

        If it makes it any better youre more likely to get an American who can convert Miles into Leagues before they even think about kilometers. We dont really use metric for anything, unless youre military or something.

    • Hossenfeffer@feddit.ukEnglish
      2·
      1 month ago

      I also understand the sentiment that the internet is effectively a US invention dating back at least to ARPAnet.

      Yeah, but this is a website. Sir Tim Berners-Lee represent!

      Plus also, English is an English invention.

      But otherwise, you’re good.

    • uienia@lemmy.world
      13·
      1 month ago

      The World Wide Web is not an American invention. Who invented what is completely irrelevant in this context anyway though.