As IF Times

The largest sporting event in the world is happening right now and likely hundreds of millions of soccer fans (or football to Euros) have travelled to North America to witness the World Cup matches firsthand.  The venues are scattered amongst a number of host cities in Canada and Mexico but most notably, in the US.  The biggest by-product of the World Cup is really its main feature, that is, to draw tourism into host nations.

For many fans, this was the first ever visit to the US and the reactions to their experiences have been the most viral thing on social media.  There has been an explosion on Instagram and Tik-Tok by tourists expressing their amazement.  One fan in particular, a Freddy from Germany, has documented his trip from the airport on the east coast through his journey across the US south to Houston on social media.  He is shocked, literally shocked at the disconnect from what he’s been led to believe about the US versus his actual experience. Freddy is showcasing his real dose of American culture.

The sheer physical size of everything in the US is what seems to awe the tourists.  The immense distances between places is unimaginable to Europeans accustomed to walking from place to place.  As someone noted, you can drive for 17 hours and still not leave the state of Texas.  Speaking of size, everything is bigger.  Walmarts and Costcos are gigantic.  The iconic Buc-ee’s , notionally a gas station in the south will have 120, yes 120 gas pumps and their in-store product selection of goods boggles the European mind.  They realize that when someone says, “I’ve visited the US”, that it’s meaningless.  The US is quite literally 50 different mini countries. It would be as if you claimed to have visited Europe if you’ve spent a week in Paris.

There are of course, some stereotypes which are true about America. There is always amazement at the iconic serving sizes of food at restaurants in the US.  Regular portions would make main dishes in Europe look like finger snacks. Free drink refills.  Ice. Air conditioning. Pleasant service people. A deep love of country. These are all common things to Americans, but an amazement to Europeans.

But the one common observation amongst all the social media posts is just how hospitable and genuine they found Americans.  They are noted as being generous, welcoming and salt of the earth people.  It’s certain that this is surprising to many because of the images perpetuated by decades of media representing them as redneck hayseeds who will shoot you at the most minor provocation. Of course, this is actually true in Northeastern states; fortunately, those were not the venue cities.  In the south, tourists were welcomed with affectations of familiarity and hospitality, quite different from the experience they were expecting.

Our German tourist Freddy even discovered country music and the biggest country star at the moment, Ella Langley, even invited him to one of her concerts. Ella is by far the biggest star in the US.  Only in America.

So, why is this so? The answer possibly lies with the fact that media, both domestic and international, have always portrayed the US as a cultural backwater and professing that their own nations were superior. Even the usually haughty British tourists were surprised at the experience they were not prepared for, with some expressing an interest in moving here. It brings to mind the old saw;  from the perspective of a frog who lives in a well, the sky is only the circle of light that they can see above their heads.

It’s a bit surprising that only now, people are finally seeing for themselves a part of the world that had always been a caricature portrayed by media… and politicians.  Whether in the US, or Canada, or Mexico, visitors have found out what the world is really like outside of their own well.  They observe that people are the same everywhere and to harbor any misgivings about an entire nation based on hearsay is simply ill-informed propaganda.

So the takeaway is, go see for yourself; don’t pay attention to the propaganda spewed by media and politicians. Maybe this is the greatest epiphany to result from the World Cup activity.  If nothing else, people can return home from their experiences here and think more expansively and critically about their own living conditions and how it compares to those of others in the big world.  More importantly they should return with a renewed sense of skepticism over what they’re being fed at home. People should experience, not just believe. After seeing what’s out there, some are expressing on social media the now famous Ella Langley lyrics about their own nation, “ I can’t love you anymore”.  It also brings to mind the observation made famous by the Tin Pan Alley song after the American soldiers served in Europe after WW1, but now in reverse. ” How ya gonna  keep ’em down on the farm after they’ve seen Paree?”

It’s interesting how far the world of mass media consumption has come.  Only a hundred years ago, if you wanted to be entertained, you had to dress up and go to the town theater to watch some kind of performance, typically including some singing, dancing and maybe some vaudevillian theater.   Then, radio came along and although it wasn’t the same visual experience as theater, you could listen to stories in the comfort of your living room, or parlor as it was probably known in those days.  This was a marvelous technical invention as it allowed listeners to create scenes in their own minds drawn from the sketches of audio only broadcasts.  The apex of influence of this medium was probably HG Well’s 1938 broadcast of The War Of The Worlds when people were led to believe that a Martian attack was under way.

But when Television came along after WW2, entertainment made another great leap forward.  No longer did people have to suffice with just audio, or with silent films at the movie theater, you could have voice and video in your own home.  However, the technology was still ahead of the content and despite classic pioneering shows including Milton Berle and Lucille Ball, most of the early offerings were rather banal.  Why? Well apparently most talented writers were working on real entertainment; Broadway plays and motion pictures.

But as in all things, the ability to make money from this new medium spawned an explosion in the amount and quality of content available on the small screen in the years to come.  Thus advertisers willing to pay to hawk their goods drew people into the business of putting out popular content.  During this time, the output of content fell to 3 major broadcasters who had a monopoly on all kinds of entertainment including news and sports.

This was pretty much the model for another 30 years until a guy named Ted Turner decided that audiences were willing to accept partitioned and specialized entertainment, thus heralding cable channels with narrow, specific fields of interest.  This shrunk the audience and influence of the big 3 networks.  To this day, you can still find a midget basket weaving channel or similar on your two hundred channel cable guide.  The next evolution was streaming.  This is essentially the same as cable channels except that you pay extra for ‘premium content’.  It’s like Only Fans, but non pornographic.  This caters to people who want to control their entertainment and on their schedules. It also contributed to the phenomenon of binge watching.

But the real 800 pound gorilla of entertainment today is Social media:  Instagram posts, Tik-Tok videos.  To the degree that most everyone on earth is able to have access to a mobile phone, they are also all consumers of Instagram or Tik Tok videos.  These are the platforms of our time. They are comprised of very short clips on any given topic.  For good or bad, these platforms truly shrink the expanse of the planet. Unlike the history of entertainment which has always been in the hands of the few, now EVERYONE is a content creator and the audience is truly vast.  Unlike all other avenues of entertainment, there are no boundaries for content, nor for that matter, taste. But these are not purely artistic and expressive works; these short videos are all now made with commercial intent.  As some may know, there are entire ‘farms’ in China which produce only short social media content for commercial use.

As with TV a couple of generations ago, everyone is looking for a way to capitalize on people’s appetite for amusement. Grand oeuvres won’t be found here, but you will find mostly themes of humor or prurience. And it’s lucrative. If somehow you are able to catch lightning in a bottle and acquire millions of view, you would be an internet sensation and all these views translates into real cash.  These ‘influencers’ make thousands or hundreds of thousands depending on the volume of clicks. They will benefit from affiliate marketing and branding.  Some of the top influencers are Cristiana Ronaldo and of course the Kardashians.   But even below that tier, many content makers can make very comfortable livings by simply putting out banal things and often simply following established formulas for content.  Who hasn’t scrolled through cute animal videos or food recipes?

Interestingly, the audience and sweet spot for marketing is and always has been to teenagers, both boys and girls as indicated by the people with the largest audiences.  But it’s also a powerful marketing tool for the entire spectrum of ages and there are probably no businesses today that don’t have a social media presence. Thus influential media has moved away from the gatekeepers of the past.  Now, anyone with a phone can influence the minds of millions as if they were stars. This is a great egalitarian platform.  So instead of professionals, people are essentially entertaining themselves!  But while this platform can reveal great minds when they otherwise would never have had the opportunity, something tells me it’s more like water…which always finds its lowest level.