Sometimes it amazes me how different people in different states can be. One time, when I went to a city in Nevada, just a few miles outside of California, it was completely different. It was amazing. So my point is, why are people form the same states usually believe the same thing, or think the same. Especially between the blue and red states, in my picture, they are directly on the state lines. My second point is why the {censored} would anyone call it "pop?"


EDIT: Added poll.

As a person who now lives in Seminole County, FL who grew up in Lake County, FL, that map is incorrect.

Smack dab in the middle of Florida (in the big red patch) is where I have lived all my life, and I have heard people refer to "soft drinks" as "soda" more than "coke" contrary to what the map claims. But then again, I also know a lot of people who refer to Pepsi and Coca Cola as "coke", so I think that may construe the actual results considering those are the two biggest soft drink manufacturers.

What would be ideal for this thread is a poll

I vote soft drinks - that's a generic enough name

Probably because in the days when it was in glass bottles with the metal caps, they made a popping noise when you opened them.

the original name was "soda pop"

I don't understand where "soft drinks" came from. Carbonated beverages don't feel soft at all. I think milk and vegetable juice should be "soft drinks," and sodas and cranberry juice should be "hard drinks" lol.

I use soda mostly.

I wonder... who did the work? I mean did one travel around and knocked on each door and asked "excuse me sir/madam, what do you call your soft drink?"

Growing up in New Orleans we called them "cold drinks"

Now that I live in Texas I believe they call everything beer.

Different people also have different accents.

Anyway, I took the bait and voted for Coke, because that's the only brand I drink (if it's a Pepsi place, it's Mountain Dew). I'm also in the middle of a "pop area" and everyone I know says "Coke." Go figure.

im guessing it is accurate for the most part though, since there are groups of counties that are the same.

I live in Alabama and not that many people say, "You want a Coke?" as in reference to any general "soft drink." Of course my county tells me otherwise so I must go with what it says....

To be fair, the sample size was just over 120,000, so there are going to be quite a few innacuracies

Soda, I live in NJ. It's pretty uniform here.

I don't know where "soft drinks" comes from (I suppose as opposed to alcoholic drinks), but in the UK I always used to say "soft drinks" and nobody seemed to have problems with it. Maybe somewhere they say "a lemonade" (my friend and I would drink "soft drinks" near Glasgow, and somebody called us "the lemonade kids")

Edit: I suppose "lemonade kids" comes from kids who make and sell lemonade in the US. I have never come across such a practice in the UK, I suspect it would be illegal.

soda came to be known as "soft drinks" because they don't contain alchohol (hard drinks)