Ohio Is Very Hated On Social Media (Cleveland, Kent: crime rate, neighborhood)

[QCongress83216]

Ohio has started to become the most hated state on social media. i ran across videos on YouTube and TikTok where they have #OnlyInOhio and making all kind of jokes about Ohio and connecting anything negative to the state even when Ohio isn't involved. Even with the train accident happen in East Palenstine; the media still took shots at Ohio. Then I saw a Facebook page called "Best Thing About Ohio...LEAVE" from some lame from a no-name town in Pennsylvania. Why is the state social media's whipping boy? Is Ohio really that hated by the masses? Do people really take these posts and videos on social media seriously?

[blickcd]

You can probably find videos bashing every state. Have mostly seen videos bashing California and have seen very little for Ohio.

The train derailment was tragic yes, but was an isolated incident. Have seen a video pointing out our drug addiction problems, but seriously that issue is nationwide. I work for a contractor and have seen construction of many rehab treatment centers, with more to come, so I feel we are taking steps to get addiction under control. Politics are not leaning to any extreme left or right, so I think that leaders have to actually work to keep their jobs.

Ohio isn't perfect, but there are jobs here, cost of living isn't out of control. Large cities are reasonably safe. They will have bad areas as expected, but those can usually be avoided.

If someone wants to leave, go for it. If someone wants to say Ohio is no good, I might actually be okay with that so we can keep it to ourselves.

[SlideRules99]

Originally Posted by QCongress83216

Ohio has started to become the most hated state on social media. i ran across videos on YouTube and TikTok where they have #OnlyInOhio and making all kind of jokes about Ohio and connecting anything negative to the state even when Ohio isn't involved. Even with the train accident happen in East Palenstine; the media still took shots at Ohio. Then I saw a Facebook page called "Best Thing About Ohio...LEAVE" from some lame from a no-name town in Pennsylvania. Why is the state social media's whipping boy? Is Ohio really that hated by the masses? Do people really take these posts and videos on social media seriously?

I wouldn’t put too much stock in YT and TikTok vids. I imagine you could find examples bashing just about every state in the country.

Interestingly, Zippia did a study in late 2022 on “most hated states”, using these criteria:

1. The percent of residents who say the state is the “worst possible state to live in”

2. The states with the biggest decrease in population

3. Nationwide, the number of other states who say they hate a state the most

https://www.zippia.com/advice/most-hated-states/

The included a social media (Instagram) poll for the third point. Unscientific at best, to be sure.

Ohio ranked #13 on most hated states.

The top 10 most hated states were Illinois, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Connecticut, and Kentucky.

Couple other thoughts:

I think a certain percentage of people nationwide hate OSU football. Look at the vitriol that pours out every time OSU makes the BCS. Ohio is bashed by association.

IMO, the East Palestine disaster has been a setback for Ohio on brand and public relations. It takes years (decades) to put the rust belt, post-industrial perception in the rear view mirror. Unfortunately, this incident puts industrial toxins and sludge back in the same sentence with Ohio, and in the media spotlight, thanks to Norfolk Southern.

Many OH residents, IMO, are not the best ambassadors for the state. When I moved here from the West Coast two years ago, you would not believe the looks of astonishment from some locals when I told them we chose to move back to Ohio. Quite a few proceeded to then bash their own state. I found this interesting.

All that said, I wouldn’t put much thought into these social media spots or other “studies”. I think most are tongue-in-cheek.

[bjimmy24]

Social media also has a strange thing going around where Ohio is the ultimate/superior state. Social media is weird.

[SonnyDaze]

The "Ohio" phenomenon is mostly just making the rounds with young people/teenagers and is not a reflection of how the populace as a greater whole perceives the state.

My son plays a popular game online called Roblox. Of the countless levels/sub-games he can play within their server, I've seen several on his homepage that make Ohio look quite dystopic: "Escape from Ohio", "A Typical Day in Ohio", etc

It reminds me of how people recently liked to joke about Florida and "Florida man" due to all the news headlines that would involve a man from Florida committing ridiculous acts/crimes.

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by CincyExpert

The "Ohio" phenomenon is mostly just making the rounds with young people/teenagers and is not a reflection of how the populace as a greater whole perceives the state.

My son plays a popular game online called Roblox. Of the countless levels/sub-games he can play within their server, I've seen several on his homepage that make Ohio look quite dystopic: "Escape from Ohio", "A Typical Day in Ohio", etc

It reminds me of how people recently liked to joke about Florida and "Florida man" due to all the news headlines that would involve a man from Florida committing ridiculous acts/crimes.

There's a local radio morning show here in Buffalo that runs a recurring segment called 'OTF', which stands for 'Ohio, Texas, Florida', where some ridiculous/humorous crime is read on the air, and callers have to guess if the crime occurred in Ohio, Texas, or Florida. The same morning show has for probably 15 years now done a weekly segment where they (humorously) dissect the police blotter of Niagara Falls, NY, so I guess they've simply turned their focus to the larger world (at least partially). But Ohio is in some company there, to be included with Texas and Florida! For what it's worth, I'd imagine that Buffalo's crime rate is worse than any municipality's in Ohio's save possibly that of the city of Cleveland--I'd have to look it up. I'd wager strongly that that's true for violent crime rate; not so sure about property crime. So local radio hosts here aren't really in the position to be making fun of crimes committed elsewhere, if we as Buffalonians are being honest.

I also read about half of a novel called, simply, 'Ohio' roughly five years ago by an Ohio native who enrolled in the well-regarded creative writing program at the U of Iowa before moving to Los Angeles...that book was very dystopian and very, very good, but I never got around to finishing it because the Barnes & Noble location where I do my daily reading removed it from its shelves one day, without warning, heh. I read non-fiction as opposed to fiction >99% of the time, but that's a novel that I looked forward to reading for each of the few days I was engaged with it.

A couple of my friends and I will be heading to Cleveland on Tuesday for work (which is poker, for all three of us) purposes, so I'm looking at the Ohio forum in anticipation, heh. I hear the games in Cleveland are really soft.

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Probably also worth mentioning in this little discussion is the great Tool song, 'Jimmy', where singer and Ravenna, OH native Maynard James Keenan (the song title is a reference to his middle name; the song itself discusses the stroke that his mother suffered when he was eleven and which incapacitated her for the rest of her life) includes the lyric 'under a dead Ohio sky'...he sought to avoid those frequently-dead skies so much that he now lives in Sedona, AZ, where the skies are almost never able to be described as dead.

[Matt Marcinkiewicz]

Originally Posted by SlideRules99

I wouldn’t put too much stock in YT and TikTok vids. I imagine you could find examples bashing just about every state in the country.

Interestingly, Zippia did a study in late 2022 on “most hated states”, using these criteria:

1. The percent of residents who say the state is the “worst possible state to live in”

2. The states with the biggest decrease in population

3. Nationwide, the number of other states who say they hate a state the most

https://www.zippia.com/advice/most-hated-states/

The included a social media (Instagram) poll for the third point. Unscientific at best, to be sure.

Ohio ranked #13 on most hated states.

The top 10 most hated states were Illinois, New Jersey, New York, West Virginia, California, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Connecticut, and Kentucky.

Couple other thoughts:

I think a certain percentage of people nationwide hate OSU football. Look at the vitriol that pours out every time OSU makes the BCS. Ohio is bashed by association.

IMO, the East Palestine disaster has been a setback for Ohio on brand and public relations. It takes years (decades) to put the rust belt, post-industrial perception in the rear view mirror. Unfortunately, this incident puts industrial toxins and sludge back in the same sentence with Ohio, and in the media spotlight, thanks to Norfolk Southern.

Many OH residents, IMO, are not the best ambassadors for the state. When I moved here from the West Coast two years ago, you would not believe the looks of astonishment from some locals when I told them we chose to move back to Ohio. Quite a few proceeded to then bash their own state. I found this interesting.

All that said, I wouldn’t put much thought into these social media spots or other “studies”. I think most are tongue-in-cheek.

Re: criterion 1, I remember seeing IL and RI as the states that fared worst on that particular metric...which struck me as funny, because Chicago and Providence are two of my favorite cities in this country. Obviously IL and RI cannot simply be reduced to those two cities, but. If I personally had to respond to #3, I'd have to vote for AL and MS in a tie...the Deep South is very, very unappealing to me

East Palestine caused NY Senator Schumer to call for increased accountability from the major train companies (mostly Norfolk Southern and CSX, from my understanding), as there've been a few derailments over the years in upstate NY that could've easily resulted in an East Palestine-esque result, given the chemicals that these trains are typically carrying (something of which I was not really aware until the East Palestine derailment occurred). Recently in the city of Buffalo there was a sighting of a moving train on fire on tracks that ran behind a somewhat affluent neighborhood, but the representatives of the company in question have so far pled ignorance.

[QCongress83216]

Originally Posted by CincyExpert

The "Ohio" phenomenon is mostly just making the rounds with young people/teenagers and is not a reflection of how the populace as a greater whole perceives the state.

My son plays a popular game online called Roblox. Of the countless levels/sub-games he can play within their server, I've seen several on his homepage that make Ohio look quite dystopic: "Escape from Ohio", "A Typical Day in Ohio", etc

It reminds me of how people recently liked to joke about Florida and "Florida man" due to all the news headlines that would involve a man from Florida committing ridiculous acts/crimes.

I'm aware of the "Florida Man" jokes and memes but in spite of that, Florida still has a glowing reputation. It's still seen as a tourist destination and a major transplant destination. The "Florida Man" thing hasn't tarnished Florida's reputation like #OnlyInOhio has tarnished Ohio's reputation along with other negative nicknames. How did young people start looking at Ohio negatively? Either though their parents and/or social media.

[216facts]

I don't think any state gets bashed more than CA. Most people couldn't care less about OH, which is fine with me. I'm happy where I'm at and I ain't movin'