Does the Internet Have a Philly Accent? Why Too Much Time Online Can Make You 'Culturally Philadelphian.' (inquirer.com)
- Reference: 0179770406
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/10/13/1421258/does-the-internet-have-a-philly-accent-why-too-much-time-online-can-make-you-culturally-philadelphian
- Source link: https://www.inquirer.com/life/internet-cultural-philadelphian-einbinder-go-birds-20251004.html
Several factors explain Philadelphia's outsized online presence. The city is large but retains a small-town sensibility. Its residents wake earlier than West Coast users and can set the daily online agenda. Philadelphia sports teams have performed well for twenty-five years. The internet rewards visual absurdity and energetic presentation. Gritty functions as both hockey mascot and anti-fascist meme. The city's working-class union identity and reliably anti-Trump stance align with leftist online communities. The alternative explanation is simpler: Philadelphians believe their city dominates conversation and find confirming evidence everywhere they look. The internet may not have made Philadelphia bigger. It may have just made Philadelphians easier to find.
[1] https://www.inquirer.com/life/internet-cultural-philadelphian-einbinder-go-birds-20251004.html
WTF? (Score:3)
n/t
No, the internet doesn't have a "Philly" accent. (Score:3)
Whatever that means.
Re: (Score:2)
The cream cheese?
Thanks, Internet. You've made me crave a smoked salmon bagel.
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I live in Philly as a transplant. The place seeks validation more than does DJT.
Weird subjective niche (Score:4, Insightful)
I've been online for a while and have not noticed Philadelphia being singled out in any way. Everything in the article's "notorious cultural touchstones" is unknown to me. Not that I'm celebrating my ignorance, but I just haven't seen anyone discussing those particular topics.
> on the internet, Philly culture is inescapable
From my point of view, on the internet Philly culture is just one of thousands, not particularly emphasized.
I suspect the author has some connection to that city which has caused him to read about it more than average.
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Personally I feel that English generally gravitates towards a west coast accent thanks to Hollywood, but maybe I'm just still old and think most of the influence still comes from movies, shows, etc.
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> Personally I feel that English generally gravitates towards a west coast accent thanks to Hollywood...
Now that is something that I feel that I've observed a little bit.
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Regarding speech, I personally think it's a blend between Hollywood and colonialism. The Philly accent is an American one but it's partially influenced by post-RP pronunciation changes because of coastal proximity like a lot of New England accents. Most places around the world that speak English learn UK English but consume more American media in English than British. So they also would pick up a blend of accents and pronunciations.
Re:Weird subjective niche (Score:4, Insightful)
> I suspect the author has some connection to that city which has caused him to read about it more than average.
You nailed it:
I’m a features reporter at The Philadelphia Inquirer. I was previously a reporter for “A More Perfect Union,” a yearlong project at the Inquirer examining racism in Philly’s founding institutions. Before that I worked at The Boston Globe as a metro reporter and at The New York Times as a researcher. My first job was as an investigative fellow at Rewire News, a national site focused on reproductive health. I grew up in Philadelphia and graduated from Yale.
Source: [1]https://www.zoehgreenberg.com/ [zoehgreenberg.com]
[1] https://www.zoehgreenberg.com/
Re:Weird subjective niche (Score:5, Interesting)
And probably used Google for her work, which sucked up all her data and now slants all its responses in the direction it thinks she's interested. Stop using Google products people. Use private browser windows/tabs and privacy respecting tools like DuckDuckGo.
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> And probably used Google for her work, which sucked up all her data and now slants all its responses in the direction it thinks she's interested. Stop using Google products people. Use private browser windows/tabs and privacy respecting tools like DuckDuckGo.
But it’s cold outside my curated bubble.
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Dear Anonymous Coward,
Uh, nope. You don't even know what Philly sounds like. As I like to say, it's half-way between New England and the South. Oh, and Italian. And eastern European. And...
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the "author" is a bot. AI. do not engage.
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The author wrote this for The Philadelphia Inquirer... They live in Philadelphia. This is a fluff piece to make people in Philadelphia feel more culturally significant. That said, there's the whole Rocky Balboa thing and they sometimes win the super bowl.
Generalizations are fun (Score:2)
Meanwhile, all podcasts are made in Los Angeles (which is why I know how to pronounce "Los Feliz"), and every novel is set in New York City.
I had no idea Gritty was an anti-fascist meme.
Just about the only thing I know about Philadelphia culture is that Phillies fans throw batteries.
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If you hang around left wing spaces then yeah you will see gritty a lot. He's a big funny monster so it's funny to think of him fighting fascism.
I'm not sure about the sports teams I had to look up the Philadelphia sports teams and none of them stood out to me as a non-sports guy. Meanwhile if I was asked to rattle off sports teams it would probably be the New York Mets and the San Francisco 49ers. Maybe the Giants.
I think this is just a silly article written by a Philadelphia newspaper. Kind of harm
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> Los Angeles (which is why I know how to pronounce "Los Feliz")
California, the place famous for mispronouncing all Spanish city/street names except for Rodeo Drive (which people are obsessive about specifically for some reason).
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As a European I have no idea who Gritty even IS, let alone what he stands for. I just recently learned that Pepe is apparently pro-Nazis which came as a surprise to me. You'd think the frog would symbolize France if anything.
Stupid thesis. (Score:3)
I know who Gritty is. I've seen every episode of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia .
I know nothing significant about the city, any regional accent, or its culture. I don't know anyone who does beyond some sports fans who know the teams... and it's hardly the only city they know in that way. I don't recall the city even being mentioned on any of the other shows I watch, I don't see it in the news more often that other cities.
If you're from there, good for you, I'm not putting you down... it's just a big world that has a lot more than Philadelphia in it.
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They make steaks with horrible fake cheese there, don't they?
Maybe not the best cheese nor best steak (Score:2)
But thank the Lord that you're not eating Cincinnati's chili.
We killed Hitchbot (Score:2)
And we will do it again. Fuck robots.
Is this because your other user id is 5 digits? (Score:1)
19110?
Big Charlie Energy (Score:1)
I donâ(TM)t know if the Internet feels like Philadelphia, but I will say it feels like Itâ(TM)s Always Sunny in Philadelphia. Even this sounds like Charlie asking if Pittsburgh is part of Philadelphia.
Uh– (Score:2)
Wut?
I mean, I haven't been "on line" as much as some folks but I did start BBSing in 1981.
I doubt I've seen any reference to Philidelphia until this /. post.
Weird
What a stupid Slashdot topic (Score:1)
I suppose the internet makes everyone from Philly as much as the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's intro song.
Well, if it's written in the Philadelphia Inquirer (Score:2)
it must be true and unbiased, right?
Great song (Score:2)
Not a Springsteen fan personally but the song is decent.
Lolwhat? (Score:1)
So here's the deal with philly, from a self-styled native:
-Hipster-doofus paradise between Front St to maybe low 40-something street between Girard Ave down to a little below South St. Likely the source of TFA.
-Bombed out no-go zone west of 45th and north of Girard.
-Bland suburb/working class zone in the Northeast.
-Catholic and Italian south of South
-Another hipster district in the northwest.
-Suburbs ranging from Portlandia to Trump country just over the city limits, depending on where.
Oh yeah and the whole
Must be ... (Score:2)
... an East Coast thing. Out here in the West, our Democrats slavishly follow California.
If we're choosing like Taledega Nights (Score:2)
I prefer my internet to talk like a hyped up car salesman that sells Fords on a local 30 second radio spot (this guy's something else...). The passionate delivery makes it interesting but always viewing it with skepticism.
Internet of Brotherly Love (Score:2)
Wandering across the Internet, you can really feel it.
Singapore (Score:2)
Philadelphia? Hardly. What I have noticed though, after using quite a bit of Tiktok is that I have learned much more about Singapore than I thought I would (as a European living in Europe). From its founding, the role of Lee Kuan Yew, the ethnic makeup, housing policy, etc., I think that's something that social media really has promoted much more than anything else.
Why is this on /. (Score:2)
A Philly newspaper writes that the Internet has a Philly accent? They think Philly sports teams have actually done well? And how exactly is Philly leftist? Have these people ever been to South Philly?
This is one of the stupidest things I've read on this website.
Re: Why is this on /. (Score:2)
Because the editors pick items that people are going to "interact with" and get "engagement"
[1]https://xkcd.com/386/ [xkcd.com]
[1] https://xkcd.com/386/
The only thing we're all thinking about (Score:2)
is your mother, and honestly, those pictures were disturbing.
The world is full of stupid press articles. (Score:2)
But why this (extremely dumb) one does ends up in Slashdot ?
Re: The world is full of stupid press articles. (Score:2)
Because slashdotters are not immune to the lure of clickbait. Look at how fast thia comment's section has grown. There isn't a nerd on this morning that could resist adding his two cents.
Re: The world is full of stupid press articles. (Score:2)
[1]https://xkcd.com/386/ [xkcd.com]
There was advice years ago that if you wanted an answer on QA sites, you should ask the question with one account, then give a wrong answer with a second one... because people usually don't care enough to help, but they WILL post to say that the first answer is wrong.
[1] https://xkcd.com/386/
provincial chauvinism (Score:2)
This is from a Philly newspaper. They are hoping to increase their local readership by flattering residents that W.C. Fields found to be better than being dead.
No (Score:3)
Just like every other article that asks a yes/no question
If the answer was yes, it wouldn't need to be a question
"anti fascist" (Score:2)
> Gritty functions as both hockey mascot and anti-fascist meme
The irony meter goes up to 11.
That explains my cravings (Score:2)
I want a cheesesteak, pretzel and TastyCake
How would you know? (Score:2)
I consider myself quite well traveled, having even traveled to several states in the USA, but find myself wondering how I would even know if the Internet had a Philly accent? I suspect my knowledge of Philadelphia is about typical of people on the Internet. Here is what I know about Philadelphia:
- It is the name of a place in the USA.
- It is probably a city name.
- It appears in the title of some movies or TV shows, but I can't name any of them.
So today I have also learnt it apparently has a distinct
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Philadelphia was the last free Roman city in western Anatolia, and fell in 1390.
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Some needs to up vote that as informative. You did omit how their sports team did in 1389 and what their mascot was, which apparently is the main metric for what is important with a city.
Comcast Holdings media empire is based in Philly (Score:2)
With Comcast and its media empire, ranging from NBC broadcast to Universal Studios to major sports teams to Xfinity ISP to cable TV to various digital/print publications to DreamWorks and other major movie studios and beyond (see [1]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] for more), it is the epitome of a propaganda machine.
As the old saying goes, Whoever controls the media, controls the mind. [2]https://quoteinvestigator.com/... [quoteinvestigator.com]
So anyone who remains within the bubble of that media empire is brainwashed into wh
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_assets_owned_by_Comcast
[2] https://quoteinvestigator.com/2022/08/17/media-mind/
assuming this might be real for 1 moment (Score:2)
perhaps this is the reporter living in a filter bubble?
Facebook dun it to him/her/it?
Setting new records (Score:5, Insightful)
This is the single dumbest thing I've read on slashdot in 20 years.
Re:Setting new records (Score:5, Insightful)
I miss OMG ponies.
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No kidding, who's seeing Philadelphia everywhere online? About the only time I ever even think of that city is when I'm watching It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and most of that show isn't even filmed in Philly.
Nothing wrong with Philly of course, I just think this sounds like nonsense. Of course the cited article being behind a paywall doesn't help. Somehow I hit my free article limit with the inquirer despite never going to their website.
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Ditto on the nonsense. Ditto on Philly.
Must be AI generated.
Re:Setting new records (Score:4, Funny)
Spoken like a true Philadelphian
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Argumentative, insulting, with an edge of "dafuq," but basically accurate and ready to laugh it off and maybe get a beer.
Yup. Sounds like Philly.
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Even by Slashdot's notoriously low standards, this is WHAT-THE-FUCKING-FUCK stupid.
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An actual example of this played out on traditional media. Everyone in the world knows New Jersey sucks, because TV was dominated by New York, and they did not miss a chance of making their neighbour the butt of the joke. The bustling streets of NY are still one of the top contenders for anyone's first image of life in US.
Philadelphia though... Most of TFA actually boils down to sports. And nobody outside the US gives a rats ass about US sports. So maybe the US internet has a Philly accent. But for the rest
The article is from the Philadelphia Inquirer. (Score:2)
Duh. I live 15 miles west of Philly, fortunately way out in the suburbs - that used to be farmland .. :(
It's nice the 'local' paper isn't bankrupt yet. But stories like this make me consider changing my mind.
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This is the single dumbest thing I've read on slashdot in 20 years.
Is [1]Phrack Magazine [phrack.org] still considered SPAM on slashdot ?
[1] https://phrack.org/
Re: (Score:2)
> This is the single dumbest thing I've read on slashdot in 20 years.
Pull up a trough, because generative AI slop is going to be creating so many more you’ll be in heaven.
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Go drink a glass of wooder.