Soda or Pop?

I'm sure you've had it happen to you, too. You say, "pop," and someone stares at you blankly for a minute, only to follow up with "oh, you mean soda!" Whatever. While this may seem rather insignificant, I would like to propose that soft drink terminology is one of the most disputed (linguistically) phenomena in the United States. Lucky for me, I also happened to find this chart to prove my point.

The term for soft drink is so commonly used, you might actually give away your place of origin the moment you open your mouth. In actuality, it doesn't really matter how you say it. Most people will probably understand eventually... but I do have issues with calling every carbonated beverage "coke." Not that I'm bias against the southern dialect, but really. It's like calling everything you wipe your nose with a "kleenex," or every temporary bandage a "bandaid." Oh, the power of product identification.