At least the name made it on the map.

Hey, at least they remembered we exist. I’ll take that as a win.

Lol! Lil Rhody living rent free in their heads. They're probably major fans of There's Something About Mary and Hocus Pocus.

Rhode Island, Long Island, tomayto, tomahto

I see this as an absolute win. Rhode Island might be depicted as the tiny boner of the east coast, but at least we're on the map. MA, ME, CT, NH, VT, NJ, PA, KY, NC, DE, GA, TN, SC aren't, but we are.

As a Long Islander who moved to Rhode Island, you’re not entirely off base.

This is an improvement! I visited Seattle and someone I met there thought RI was an island in the Puget Sound 🫣

I'm always amazed when people in other states legit don't know RI exists. Some act super confused....I kinda just assumed pretty much everyone at least knew the 50 states. Too much credit I guess.

I'm ok with this.

Well.. They forgot to put their own state on there, so I'm not too worried about it.

Where in the US have you gone that they’ve been unfamiliar with RI? I’ve run into it with non-native English speakers and in foreign countries but no one I’ve met in the US has admitted they didn’t know about us. Lol

When I’m abroad I just say “Boston.”

I grew up in Maine and the first time I went to Florida at age 12, some kid in the pool and I were talking and he said he thought Maine was in Canada and then asked me if we had indoor plumbing. I am not shocked people don’t know RI exists.

Don’t forget Family Guy.

As with the other commenter...Florida, and also Utah.

Florida is the home of "Florida Man" so I mean 🤷‍♀️... and Utah is loaded with homeschooled Mormons.

It's shocking tho isn't it? Or I've gotten "Where are you from?" Rhode Island "Oh long Island, NY?" No RHODE Island (blank stares).

Lol. That's amusing. I was shocked at first then I met more people and realized "average intelligence" puts a bunch below that to get average sooo 🤷‍♀️ What can ya do?

Don't forget Me, Myself, and Irene.

It’s always Long Island!! Lol

Puget Sound has 35 islands so that's not too unreasonable. And here's an interesting coincidence. The Seattle Sounders soccer club has "Providence" on its jerseys. It's a non-profit health company in the Pacific Northwest. I was once asked if I was from Oregon when I said I hailed from Providence.

People make weird associations sometimes.

Depends on what you mean by familiar. A lot of people place it in New England but don't know where New England begins. Does it include Connecticut? Long Island? You have to remember that some people are map illiterate.

The post I replied to was that they didn’t know RI existed. I don’t expect people to know where everything is but to not know RI is a state is crazy to me.

Think of the people you went to high school with. How many of them paid attention in geography? How many were there only because they had to be? How many spouted the "I'll never use this info after I graduate" line? And Rhode Island isn't exactly a headline grabbing place either so it's below the radar for lots of folks. It's not a freak show like Florida or a shootout a month like Texas.

Just to throw a funny story out there. A few years ago I went to Europe with my dad. A man who never travels outside the state, except Seekonk and Attleboro. I warned him that nobody would know of RI, so just say we are from outside of Boston. He did not like the idea of saying he was from Boston.

A few days into the trip, we ran across a family from California. My dad jumps on the chance to say we are from RI. Me and my sister look at each other, knowing where this is going to go. The parents seems confused, but act like they know. The teenage girl with them, said something along the lines of "oh I love the hamptons". I corrected her, saying no not Long Island, Rhode Island. She responded that she "knew". But clearly she didn't.

A side not, I graduated H.S. out in Phoenix. Nobody there knew what RI was. They all just assumed it was a synonym for Long Island. However, on a trip to HI, a waiter knew of RI and referred to it as "one of the colonies". Something I had never heard before.

I have a friend that moved to Oregon , so I’ve been there a lot. He’s in the medial field and I’ve met drs who have no clue where RI is…. Now I just say I live outside Boston

Went out to Nevada and they didn’t even know of Rhode Island - happy to at least have made it!

Everywhere we GO! south or West of NYC

I dunno which is more odd to deal with. People thinking RI is an actual island

or People who have never heard of it. Americans! "Oh is that part of Long Island? or the Bahamas?"

Like. WTF!?

I grew up on Long Island and moved here in part because it felt comfortable culturally to me.

Rhode Island looks like an actual Island.

Thanks for the chuckle.

Eesh, tell me you don't know geography without telling me. Also the "incest states" are the deep Appalachia states like Kentucky and Tennessee, not Louisiana and Alabama. Idk why the deep south got that label.

This exactly lol. The expectation of ppl knowing Rhode Island exists let alone placing somewhat geographically accurate on the map is very low. Speaking from experience.

Well at least we're on the map and not some random island 🤣