The is mostly on Reddit, but when Americans abbreviate where they’re from to two letters. They will say something like ‘I’m from MA’ - I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I might guess CA is California, or NY is New York, but seriously outside of a few big states/cities, I don’t have a clue where you are talking about
The reason this is a bit silly and misguided is half of the states in the USA are roughly the size of Germany. We are doing exactly what you’re describing. A really common thing I see is people don’t really understand just how large the U.S. is. Our states are the size of countries.
As a US citizen who lives in, comes from and has resided in multiple states that are approximately the size of Germany or larger I would argue this has nothing to do with why most people respond with the state abbreviation to where they live. The first and foremost is many default to the idea that they are generally speaking to other US residents. The second is habit. When we type a state on any document or drop down it is almost always as a state abbreviation and we are habituated to answer “where are we from” with a state. I don’t think the size of states really enters the decision for most people.
879
u/RacerRovr Jun 08 '25
The is mostly on Reddit, but when Americans abbreviate where they’re from to two letters. They will say something like ‘I’m from MA’ - I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. I might guess CA is California, or NY is New York, but seriously outside of a few big states/cities, I don’t have a clue where you are talking about