• poo@lemmy.worldEnglish
    67·
    2 months ago

    I’ve heard it called “US Defaultism” where most Americans online seem to assume that everyone they interact with is from their country and all US news is considered significant even when it really isn’t.

    • Prison Mike@links.hackliberty.org
      25·
      2 months ago

      Counterpoint: I rarely see non-US news posted. I do from time to time here on Lemmy, but it’s very rare.

      I might just be in the wrong communities though.

      • bruhduh@lemmy.world
        8·
        2 months ago

        That’s because most of the world countries keep internal news, internal, but you’re right tho, not enough representation makes people think like that

        • Kyouki@lemmy.world
          4·
          2 months ago

          I do lean moee towards us defaultism being the case as other country news does get posted but has zero to none interaction because the us posts threads are getting so much more activity.

          • Prison Mike@links.hackliberty.org
            2·
            2 months ago

            Outside Lemmy I use Apple News and what I kind of hate about it is even while traveling abroad you’re stuck with US news. I have both English and Spanish languages set up on iOS so being in a Spanish-speaking country, it would be nice to see local news in either language.

            • Kyouki@lemmy.world
              2·
              2 months ago

              Wish we had Apple News :(

              I generally avoid news of late of any kind as its just so bloated and every once a week or so just visit one of my local sites for a quick scroll.

      • wieson@feddit.org
        5·
        2 months ago

        The community news@lemmy.world used to have it in their rules, that it must be US news, same as on the old site. I just looked, and it’s no longer a rule on lemmy.world

    • 200ok@lemmy.world
      5·
      2 months ago

      Imagine if different fonts represented different accents.

      𝓗𝓸𝔀 𝓭𝓸 𝔂𝓸𝓾 𝓭𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸𝓸?

    • disguy_ovahea@lemmy.world
      5·
      2 months ago

      I’ve been guilty of that- commenting before checking what community the post was in. Thankfully, I’ve found that most people outside of the US prefer gentle correction. Unfortunately, I doubt the average person from the US would show the same courtesy if the roles were reversed.

      • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        I find that it correlates more with education status than nationality… but therefore it surely is more rare among the set of average Americans who have access to the internet than globally.

        • MBM@lemmings.world
          2·
          2 months ago

          … the average Westerner also has access to the internet? At most, maybe it excludes those who don’t speak English

  • NateNate60@lemmy.world
    33·
    2 months ago

    To be fair, the US has the largest number of English-speakers of any country in the world. As a first language, it has five times as many native English speakers as second place (the UK). It also has one of the highest Internet penetration rates in the world, meaning most of those English-speakers are also Internet users.

    The US is a single country that is three-quarters the population of the entire European Union, and nearly all of its inhabitants speak English and use the Internet. So yes, if you pick a random user on an English social media page, odds are very good that person is an American. If you were to guess any random English-speaking Internet user’s nationality, “American” is the best possible guess. But go on a Spanish language forum or a French language forum and nobody will assume you’re American.

    Consequently, Americans generate the majority or large plurality of English-language Internet content.

    Edit: Please stop replying with “English is a lingua franca for non-native English speakers”. I never made the claim that someone who uses English on the Internet is likely a native English speaker. I am claiming the converse—that people who natively speak English are likely to use English on the Internet.

    • zerofk@lemm.ee
      22·
      2 months ago

      I’m sorry but this is nonsense. I’m in a lot of online communities where everyone uses English, despite it being nearly nobody’s first language. It just happens to be the only language that everyone there knows. Language is no indication of nationality, especially online.

      And to be honest, in those places the assumption is usually that everyone is European, which I can imagine is just as annoying for the stray American.

      • NateNate60@lemmy.world
        5·
        2 months ago

        I think you misunderstand.

        What I am saying is that of all Internet users that use English, Americans are by far the largest group due to it being a very large country, (third most populous in the world) with a high Internet penetration (97%), and whose residents speak English as their main language (78.3%).

        • uienia@lemmy.world
          8·
          2 months ago

          What I am saying is that of all Internet users that use English, Americans are by far the largest group

          No, they didn’t misunderstand. It is you who are massively misunderstanding. You are suffering from the erronous assumption that people who speak English on the internet are native English speakers when that it is not so at all. People speak English on the internet because it is the largest commonly understood language. So people from non-English speaking countries are using it as well. And there are a heck of a lot more non-native English speakers in the world than native English speakers.

          So you are most likely at any time on the internet to be speaking to a non-native English speaker, and thus definitely not an American.

          • NateNate60@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 months ago

            I did not claim the people who use English on the Internet are likely native English speakers.

            I made the converse claim—that people whose native language is English are likely to use English on the Internet.

        • zerofk@lemm.ee
          6·
          2 months ago

          But I would argue that the rest of the world also uses primarily English online. And just by virtue of being the rest of the world, outnumbers the Americans.

          In other words, of all Internet users that use English, the vast majority is likely not American.

          Of course I don’t have data to back this up, except anecdotally.

        • s3p5r@lemm.eeEnglish
          4·
          2 months ago

          This list puts US at ~297m English speakers which is the largest group from one single country, that is true. But 297m / 1,537m = The US has 19.35% of English speakers globally.

          You are likely also greatly underestimating current internet connectivity, older smartphones have changed things for poorer countries a lot over the past decade. For example, India has only 62.6% of people as internet users - but that’s still 880m people and probably most of their 125m English speakers. Nigeria has 63.8% internet users, but that’s 136m internet users. And they also have 125m English speakers, who again, are more likely to be the people who can afford an English education, and also a smartphone. And then there’s Pakistan with another 100m English speakers and 70.8% internet users, etc.

          Just 3 countries, (2 of which were 1 country 80 years ago) and you’re close to that 300 million count already.

          The list also gives US as 92.4% internet users, for what it’s worth. A little less than 97% and not even in the top 20 countries by percentage, which is surprising.

          The internet is less American than ever. It’s just that most non-American people probably have non-English language spaces they can choose to gather in addition to the English-dominated spaces. Americans, on the other hand, are more likely to be monolingual English speakers and so they concentrate in the English-dominated spaces.

          And non-Americans are all so used to people assuming American defaultism in English-dominated internet spaces because it was historically hugely expensive to get online and was overwhelmingly American English-speaking, that it’s not even worth correcting when it happens the millionth time.

          I’ve also put non-metric and US currency conversions in posts online many times. Not because I’m American or use them in daily life. It was just less annoying to convert them when writing rather than hear the inevitable multiple complaints about not understanding things in meters and dessicated jokes like “that’s probably $2 in real money”.

          You’re either overestimating the accuracy of your assumptions about your online interactions and/or seeing selection bias from your immersion in otherwise culturally isolated spaces.

    • bstix@feddit.dk
      18·
      2 months ago

      Americans generate the majority of English-language Internet content.

      Doubt.

      There are 1.3 billion people who use English on the internet as a first or second language.

      • NateNate60@lemmy.world
        3·
        2 months ago

        Not all Internet users generate the same amount of content. In addition to Americans being proud blabbermouths in general, people from wealthy countries generate more content than those from poorer countries. The US is among the wealthiest countries in the world.

        Although it is not the most representative, nearly half of all Reddit users are American. American media outlets have immense global reach. You can probably name four or five American media outlets just off the top of your head, even if you’re not American. The USA’s geopolitical power means people are always talking about American politics or what America’s leaders are doing, which draws engagement from Americans like a lamp draws moths. 7 out of the top 10 English-language YouTube channels are American (fully or partially).

        It’s pretty much impossible to prove, but I think the claim that Americans generate most of the content on the Internet is likely true or very close to true.

        It’s even more convincing if you exclude English Internet users from India, as a quick visit to any forum dominated by Indian users will cause you to quickly realise that the language used there is not really English but a mix of English and Hindi which is not comprehensible to non-Indians.

        • uienia@lemmy.world
          5·
          2 months ago

          Again, the numbers you linked shows that you are more likely to speak to a non-American on reddit than an American. Your entire premise is flawed from the beginning.

      • NateNate60@lemmy.world
        7·
        2 months ago

        This point was plainly addressed. Read carefully before going in guns-blazing.

        Do you think Nigerians use the Internet as much as Americans?

    • uienia@lemmy.world
      9·
      2 months ago

      Again, you are completely missing the point of the internet and English usage on it. People are using English as a lingua franca. There are a lot more non-native English speakers on the internet than native English speakers.

      So no, odds are not that it is an American you are speaking to, just because that person speaks English. You are literally regurgitating the fallacy that OP is about.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        We should really be counting English literate people, since nobody here is talking, and literacy is more reading/writing.

        Literacy is pretty broad too. It doesn’t imply that it’s your native language, nor if you can speak the language (whether you can do that very well or not).

        Literacy is going to be a bonefide requirement for most of the internet, with some exceptions, like text to speech and speech recognition stuff, people with disabilities who may not be able to see properly or at all… Stuff like that.

      • Hossenfeffer@feddit.ukEnglish
        1·
        2 months ago

        lingua franca

        I love that the real lingua franca, a term from both Latin and Greek roots, literally meaning the language of the Franks (French) is English. Plus, also, fuck you Esperanto!

    • pixelscript@lemm.eeEnglish
      8·
      2 months ago

      The more egalitarian principle would be to not assume. I won’t deny that. People from more minority locales have every right to be upset at being marginalized.

      But at the same time, whenever I read passive aggressive comments on socials from residents of crown countries or from EAASL people around the world bitching about US defaultism as if people are doing it just to be ignorant dicks, I can only think to myself, “Uhh, hello? What do you think the demographics of this space were? What did you expect?”

      Americans are hardly the majority of the world’s English speakers, but for all the reasons you listed, they tend to remain a massive plurality, if not an outright overwhelming majority, of any mainstream online English language platform. No, that’s not a license to perpetuate US defaultism. But like… read the room, people. Your good fight is far more uphill than you seem to think it is.

      • NateNate60@lemmy.world
        4·
        2 months ago

        The average American uses only English language forums.

        The average European who speaks English will probably spend some portion of their time using whatever their native language is.

        The average English speaker in Africa is not as likely to have an Internet connection.

        The average English speaker in China is likely to not be able to access English social media sites (great firewall).

        Many English-speakers in India post online in a mix of English and Hindi that non-Indians find difficult to comprehend.

        You’re correct that the claim that the US is ¾ the population of Europe is erroneous. But it is ¾ the population of the EU. I’ve corrected this.

        • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de
          3·
          2 months ago

          I admire your determination to bend your perception of facts to fit your narrative.

          • Russia, Kanada, Australia, South America? Apparently they ceased to exist.
          • Africa? They still live in mud and abject poverty. There is no electricity nor Internet.
          • China? They’re 100% locked in. (No bots no nothing.)
          • Indians can’t write proper English (a bit rich coming from an USAmerican)
          • NateNate60@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 months ago

            Surely you have a bit more thinking power than that. If you gave each of your bullet points a mere five seconds each of critical thought, you wouldn’t have made this ridiculous comment.

            Those countries you mentioned? Of course there are people living in them. But there aren’t as many English-speakers as in America. I didn’t say all, I say most (this will be a recurring theme).

            With the exception of southern Africa (76%), the rest of Africa has Internet penetration rates below 50%. As low as 27% in east Africa. Remember, I didn’t say all, I said most.

            China’s great firewall prevents most people from accessing the outside Internet, and many Chinese people don’t care to. I know this, because I’m fucking Chinese. Is it possible to circumvent? Sure, if you’re willing to play VPN whack-a-mole with the CCP or are lucky enough to be the 1% of China that lives in Hong Kong or Macau. But again, I said most, I didn’t say all.

            You also clearly have never been on any forums populated by Indian users if you think that I’m only saying Indians use unintelligible English on the Internet because I’m racist. They code-switch between English and Hindi. If you don’t know Hindi, you won’t understand it. Are all posts like this? Of course not. But a great deal are. I never said all, I said most.

            Here are random top comments from the top posts of Reddit’s r/Indiasocial that show what I’m talking about:

            Kal bolne ja rha Hu usko . Want to get it over it once and for all been bugging me since some time . No boldiya toh sahi hai Padhai kar lunga .

            Kassh bta pata mummy ko apni sab problems. Bta bii nhi pata kyuki woh chinta karengii

            OP ke AAnde jalwa diye

            Folks, look what I found during cleaning today😭🥺🥹

            I am so happy that my mom has still kept all of stuff in the store room. Woh bhi kya din the🥹🥹

            Bhai hamare side ke Ghar mein kirayedar rehte Hain. To un baccho kii ball hamari chat ya backyard mein aa jati thi aur mere ek Purina badi wali thaili bharke balls bahut variety Hain par mummy nikalne NAHI deti.

            Time to leave this sub. Har dusara post my gf/bf made this, i went for date, gift given by my bf/gf. Had hai

            And also, I don’t use American English. I live in America but I am a Hongkonger and use British English.

            • hessenjunge@discuss.tchncs.de
              2·
              2 months ago

              They code-switch between English and Hindi. If you don’t know Hindi, you won’t understand it. Are all posts like this? Of course not.

              You’re so close. Let me give you another hint: What do you think every other regional sub looks like? (I speak multiple languages, so I’ve been to multiple regionals - including in Languages I don’t really speak)

              Also, yes it is a bit racist to assume that Indians are only able to converse in an Hindi/English mix and unable to converse in proper English. On top of that it is a bit stupid to assume all of India speaks Hindi - e.g. most of Bengalurians speak Kannada.

              But there aren’t as many English-speakers as in America. I didn’t say all, I say most (this will be a recurring theme).

              You’re correct. It’s a recurring theme. You have been made aware by multiple people now that you over-inflate the percentage of USAmericans among the users of English-speaking forums and that you have been incredibly ignorant about it.

              I think none will dispute that US located users are in the majority - the majority is however not as big as you make it out to be. (and your reasoning is - for lack of a better term - atrocious)

              • NateNate60@lemmy.world
                1·
                2 months ago

                The only thing I am claiming is that a majority or large plurality of English language Internet users are American, meaning if you are to assume a country of origin (note: if), assuming the user is an American is the one most likely to be accurate. I think I’ve said enough on the matter.

                If you disagree, that’s fine but I’m tired of this conversation.

  • slickgoat@lemmy.world
    31·
    2 months ago

    I’m from Australia and don’t mind engagement with the (mostly) US content.

    Let’s face it, the US election is the most interesting event on the planet anyway.

    • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
      9·
      2 months ago

      I just wish Americans would have a little self awareness when engaging in foreign content.

      I was in a comment thread for a video on a report by the ABC about ADEs. Now I will give Americans the benefit of the doubt, we both have ABC networks, but ours clearly says “Australia”, the news presenter has a Australian accent, and was talking about the Australian minimum wage, there were references to Centrelink and the Australian government repeatedly. If you watched the video and couldn’t tell me what country the video was about, you need to go back to primary school, your media comprehension level is dysfunctional .

      I mentioned a clarifying point in the the comments about ADE being different from DES and giving numbers for each (you don’t need to know anything about these acronyms), and someone starts arguing with me that when they were in the disability program they got xyz and they didn’t have to do any of this. I replied saying that these processes have been unchanged for 20 years, I don’t know how they’re getting what they’re getting, they have a unique case. They come back telling me everyone gets that, that’s how it is, I need to do my research before I make stuff up. I explain that I work in the sector, I’m looking at the cases software, if they are indeed getting those services through that program, they are the only one of 40,000 people in the program getting that, because that’s not how the service works. They tell me 15 million people people use the program. I finally realise what’s happening. “there are only 25 million people people in Australia…you’re a lost American aren’t you?” and sure enough ,they politely reply with “oh yeah, I’m not Australian so I don’t know, maybe it’s different over there”.

      And I just can’t with that level of American stupidity.

      You can came into an Australian forum and assumed I wasn’t Australian, assumed I wasn’t talking about Australia, then came to the conclusion that “maybe it’s different over there” when I had explicitly just informed you that ,yes, the law is different here.

      Now many times could I have used the acronym DES before the American thought to themselves “maybe this person isn’t talking about SSDI”.

      And this is just the example from the last hour. I end up in a lot of international PD sessions for my work, and something like this is a daily occurrence, only with the Americans.

      Canada, you are sadly not excused from this, nor sure why but it’s always "okay, where are we all from? “Australia” “Belgium” “Brazil” “Indonesia” “Fort Freedom” “Edmonton”

      Those are cities and provinces, clearly the rest of us are doing countries, some of us are big enough that we could name states if we wanted to, but we’re being polite, you’ve got 50 (10+3 🇨🇦 ) of them and we didn’t memorise a silly song in school to learn your states.

      The fact that I know how many states the US has and how many provinces and tertories Canada has, but an American would be stabbing in the dark to guess how many states and territories Australia has, even though our biggest state is 3x bigger than Texas and Australia as a whole is a comparable landmass to the contiguous 48.

      • gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        2·
        2 months ago

        And I just can’t with that level of American stupidity.

        Not just Americans, most people don’t read/watch the link

        The fact that I know how many states the US has and how many provinces and tertories Canada has, but an American would be stabbing in the dark

        Not surprising given our influence on your culture is far greater than the other way, landmass is worthless when it’s full of the Outback (a beautiful place for sure)

        And you’d be surprised how many of us know it’s 6, I bet. Californians get to play with you guys online if we stay up past our bedtimes, after all.

        The more fun part is going to be me trying to name them and see if I still can: Queensland, New South Whales, Western? Australia, Northern? Australia, Victoria (you already HAVE ONE NAMED AFTER THE QUEEN THOUGH), Tasmania? Is that one you guys?

        • DillyDaily@lemmy.world
          1·
          2 months ago

          This is a good point about cultural export, majority of modern content use American, and the majority of childhood content at least for me was Canadian.

          I’m often surprised how little I know of the UK compared to the USA when I think of how much is imported to Australia from the UK …including my family.

          Thank you so much for giving me your guesses at state names, we did make it easy for you with just a bunch of cardinal directions.

          You are bang on with 6 states, and almost bang on with their names.

          The place you’ve dubbed “Northern Australia” is the “Northern Territory” and is not a state, the state you are missing is South Australia.

          We have two major territories, Northern Territory as mentioned, but then similar to the USA, our national capital is not located within a state.

          Our capital city is in “The Australian Capital Territory”, or just “the ACT”

          We are super creative with the names. Hence why we named 2 after the Queen (then stupidly named the capital city of Victoria “Melbourne” instead of “Batmania”, which was totally an option on the table!) but also America can’t talk, how many important places have you named after Washington and Columbus?

          Tasmania is indeed ours, ours lonely Island state. Not so fun fact, Tasmanian Devils are endangered because they keeps biting each other’s faces off and giving each other contagious facial cancer.

          There’s another internal territory no one really talks about, Jarvis Bay, it was formed mostly so the ACT could have access to a port without needing to use a state’s port.

          We have 7 external territories, the main ones being the island territories of Norfolk, Cocos, and Christmas Islands.

    • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
      3·
      2 months ago

      Glad everyone else is enjoying the show at least. Half of us here are terrified we’re about to lose the country to maniacal egotists with a penchant for a bit of racism and monarchy.

      • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
        3·
        2 months ago

        As a Canadian, we’re feeling it too. I’m sure it’s not as significant as what you’re all feeling.

        It’s weird having a half deranged megalomaniacal neighbor, where they’re fine most of the time then occasionally go completely off the rails.

        • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
          2·
          2 months ago

          I’ve often wondered how concerned ya’ll might be. Sorry about the mess. For whatever it is worth, a lot of us are trying to clean it up.

          • MystikIncarnate@lemmy.caEnglish
            2·
            2 months ago

            We’re hoping that happens, and you don’t get stonewalled by idiots. We’re cheering for your efforts.

            To be fair, we have our own share of problems, including, but not limited to, hardline conservatives pulling similar crap, and even the odd Canadian Trump supporters, which always confused me.

            We’re coping okay. Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse.

            • JigglySackles@lemmy.world
              2·
              2 months ago

              Trump supporters outside the us are the absolute weirdest anamoly to me. I barely get why some Americans like him. But seeing avid support for him elsewhere just blows my mind. Good luck though! Rooting for you guys too!

    • stewi@sh.itjust.works
      2·
      2 months ago

      Could not disagree more.

      It’s a pathetic state of affairs that people here care and know more about US politics than our own country’s, and I’m personally sick of it.

  • OpenStars@discuss.onlineEnglish
    28·
    2 months 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
      20·
      2 months 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
        12·
        2 months 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
          6·
          2 months 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
            2·
            2 months 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.

          • Graphy@lemmy.world
            1·
            2 months ago

            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

        • MudMan@fedia.io
          3·
          2 months 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·
            2 months 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·
            2 months 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·
              2 months 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·
                2 months 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·
                  2 months 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
        7·
        2 months 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·
          2 months 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.

    • Mubelotix@jlai.lu
      15·
      2 months ago

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

      • Revan343@lemmy.ca
        5·
        2 months ago

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

        • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          2 months 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.

  • YeetPics@mander.xyz
    22·
    2 months 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!

  • MBM@lemmings.world
    15·
    2 months 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
      5·
      2 months 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.

    • LainTrain@lemmy.dbzer0.com
      11·
      2 months ago

      If any instance uses anything akin to cloudflare, Google, a cloud provider or a CDN then this question makes no sense because it’s “hosted” all over the world.

      Not that it ever made any sense because why would it matter where a website is hosted if it’s equally accessible globally? It’s not like you have to type a longer URL to hit it from Europe lmfao, and It’s not like the internet is some sort of local US thing where you have to hear about it by word of mouth.

    • Sop@lemmy.blahaj.zone
      5·
      2 months ago

      The word world is literally in the name… When I joined lemmy I started there because I assumed it would be a general instance. It’s like worldnews where 90% of posts are US politics. Also, it’s not an obsession, most times it comes up it’s just a joke (like this meme).

    • MBM@lemmings.world
      2·
      2 months ago

      It’s hosted in Finland, by a German company, and has Dutch admins. Was that your point?

      Edit: bonus, the Lemmy devs get paid from a Dutch grant and the ones whose nationality I know are not from the US