# Is the Internet turning the world American? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [September 26, 2014, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625 "2014-09-26T07:13:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 7:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/1 "2014-09-26T07:13:18Z")
Do you think with the Internet spreading American music, TV shows etc to other countries eventually the entire planet will have our culture and values? While some other countries have produced popular shows and artists, especially Britain, still the vast majority comes from the United States. I even have noticed that teenagers and 20somethings in Australia and New Zealand have valley girl type accents these days, so something is up no? ---
**Author:** ![grude](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e47774/32.png) [@grude](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grude)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/2 "2014-09-26T07:16:44Z")
I don’t know about all that, but the internet has certainly made all media more accessible by anyone no matter where they are on Earth. Before you’d be limited to what local TV stations licensed from the US lineup, or what was released or imported by local companies on home media. But I do think it has had a significant effect in spreading US media to the younger masses. ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/3 "2014-09-26T09:02:45Z")
Gah, I remember when no one in Australia even knew what the word “diaper” meant, and now I frequently hear people talking about diapers instead of nappies. Please don’t ruin all our words. ---
**Author:** ![iljitsch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/77aa72/32.png) [@iljitsch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iljitsch)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/4 "2014-09-26T09:17:05Z")
To some degree, yes, probably. I guess people in other English-speaking countries get exposed to more American content and American people over the internet these days. And in the early days, there wasn’t much non-English/non-American content on the internet, so people elsewhere also got exposed to more American stuff. But these days every country / language has their own stuff. So all in all I don’t think the effect is huge. ---
**Author:** ![zoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zoid/32/336_2.png) [@zoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zoid)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 9:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/5 "2014-09-26T09:19:53Z")
I think it goes both ways, it’s made us all more global. Without the internet I would never get to read all the stuff contributed by all the non-Americans here. I doubt very much any of us over here would have ever heard of Gangam Style without the internet. ---
**Author:** ![Smapti](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/smapti/32/17938_2.png) [@Smapti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Smapti)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 9:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/6 "2014-09-26T09:23:58Z")
> [@Eliahna](#): > > Gah, I remember when no one in Australia even knew what the word “diaper” meant, and now I frequently hear people talking about diapers instead of nappies. Please don’t ruin all our words. Consider it our revenge for your unleashing Iggy Azalea on us. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Cunctator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/43a26b/32.png) [@Cunctator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cunctator)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/7 "2014-09-26T09:32:59Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Consider it our revenge for your unleashing Iggy Azalea on us. 🙂 Is that a person or a plant? ---
**Author:** ![Cazzle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cazzle/32/75_2.png) [@Cazzle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cazzle)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/8 "2014-09-26T09:37:32Z")
> [@Smapti](#): > > Consider it our revenge for your unleashing Iggy Azalea on us. 🙂 \ We brought a knife to a fist fight there, didn’t we? ---
**Author:** ![protoboard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/fbc32d/32.png) [@protoboard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/protoboard)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 10:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/9 "2014-09-26T10:12:31Z")
> [@zoid](#): > > I think it goes both ways, it’s made us all more global. Without the internet I would never get to read all the stuff contributed by all the non-Americans here. I doubt very much any of us over here would have ever heard of Gangam Style without the internet. True but thing is, a lot of people were expecting there to be a K-pop wave in the West after Gangnam Style but it turned out to be a one-off thing like Rock Me Amadeus. Not to mention there’s really nothing Korean about Gangnam Style aside from the fact it’s sung primarily in Korean, lol. ---
**Author:** ![Acsenray](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/acsenray/32/4519_2.png) [@Acsenray](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acsenray)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 10:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/10 "2014-09-26T10:18:43Z")
American culture was being spread by records, movies, television, and radio long before the Internet. If anything, it’s non-American culture that the Internet is offering a channel of distribution that it did not previously have. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 10:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/11 "2014-09-26T10:19:29Z")
I think MS Word’s default spellcheck did more towards this than all of the rest of everything combined. ---
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 10:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/12 "2014-09-26T10:33:35Z")
In relative terms, American culture may be getting \*less \*dominant now. It used to be that if you wanted to watch films or TV or listen to popular music, your choices were almost entirely domestic or American. Now, if you want to watch Danish crime dramas while listening to Indonesian folk music, knock yourself out. [edit] er, like **Ascenray** said… ---
**Author:** ![SciFiSam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/47e85d/32.png) [@SciFiSam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SciFiSam)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 10:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/13 "2014-09-26T10:43:19Z")
Yes, re language. It did start, as others have said, with TV and movies and so on, but the internet has added an extra level of Americanisation. It’s not uncommon to find British kids who think the last letter of the alphabet is zee, for example. I don’t mean little kids who’d been watching sesame street, but older kids who’ve been online a lot, and know it’s zed but their first response is zee. Culturally, I’m not so sure. I think there’s more interchange there. ---
**Author:** ![nachtmusick](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ac91a4/32.png) [@nachtmusick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nachtmusick)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 12:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/14 "2014-09-26T12:08:45Z")
> [@Acsenray](#): > > American culture was being spread by records, movies, television, and radio long before the Internet. If anything, it’s non-American culture that the Internet is offering a channel of distribution that it did not previously have. I don’t think the US can build enough drones to prevent the world from changing it. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/15 "2014-09-26T13:57:55Z")
If anything, the Internet is making Americans more worldly. Can you imagine _Gangnam Style_ catching on in 1988? > [@bldysabba](#): > > I think MS Word’s default spellcheck did more towards this than all of the rest of everything combined. MS Word defaults to a US dictionary when sold in the Indian market? Weird. ---
**Author:** ![njtt](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/ecd19e/32.png) [@njtt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/njtt)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/16 "2014-09-26T15:07:38Z")
> [@protoboard](#): > > I even have noticed that teenagers and 20somethings in Australia and New Zealand have valley girl type accents these days, so something is up no? Australians and New Zealanders were [uptalking](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_rising_terminal) long before valley girls became a thing. ---
**Author:** ![marshmallow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/df705f/32.png) [@marshmallow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/marshmallow)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/17 "2014-09-26T15:49:32Z")
The Western world, maybe. Two billion Chinese and Indians couldn’t care less. ---
**Author:** ![bldysabba](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ecccb3/32.png) [@bldysabba](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bldysabba)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 3:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/18 "2014-09-26T15:51:35Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > MS Word defaults to a US dictionary when sold in the Indian market? Weird. Not anymore, no, but it did for many years. Internet browser spellcheckers, Apple smartphones and the like _still_ default to US spelling. This colour shows up with a red underline 😕 ---
**Author:** ![SpoilerVirgin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4491bb/32.png) [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/19 "2014-09-26T16:26:09Z")
I agree with others that while American culture was spreading globally long before the Internet, the Internet has allowed the culture of other countries to be spread as well. One example that springs to mind is the Russian dashcams. Not only are we aware of what’s going on with Russian traffic, but they seem to have inspired an increased interest in dashcams in the U.S. and elsewhere. Another example is Salatut elämät, the Finnish soap opera which is available on Youtube, and has become so popular worldwide that the story of its appeal has been covered on the nightly news in Finland. The show has online fans from at least 2 dozen countries, including the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, the UK, France, Italy, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Iceland, Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines and Vietnam. I seriously doubt that anyone in Vietnam had ever watched a Finnish T.V. show prior to the Internet. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Wiggler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/red_wiggler/32/13190_2.png) [@Red\_Wiggler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Wiggler)\ **Post date:** [September 26, 2014, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625/20 "2014-09-26T17:38:37Z")
The global brand of football is having more influence in the U.S. than versey vicey. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-the-internet-turning-the-world-american/699625.md?page=2)