It's an odd feeling when your existence is not acknowledged as part of reality.
I know there are much worse examples than this, but I encountered one yesterday while filling out a survey. Its purpose was to correlate attitudes about a particular subject (perception of what's a "normal" cold or hot temperature) with what part of the country respondents are from originally and currently.
The way the survey asked about location of origin was like this:
The fact that it assumes respondents grew up in a city seems strange to me. Why didn't the writer ask, What's was the nearest major metro area when you were growing up? if that's what they wanted to know?
In some ways, the longer explanation made it worse: the only other option was a suburb (that is near a "major metro").
And what about truly rural areas? What is a respondent supposed to assume counts as a major metro? Does everyone in Wyoming put in Cheyenne no matter where they live?
I'm not from a suburb, and the closest actual "city" is neither nearby nor a major metro. But I put that in as answer, grumbling the whole time.
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