Saturday, February 21, 2015

Stop trrying to convert me Soccer fans

I would like to say that I am a football fan, and I can get a little crazy about it. Mostly though I just get crazy around game time and when someone wants to talk smack. It’s a fun community to be a part of and an interesting culture to belong to. But like I said my interest is mostly in the game and experience. It is surprisingly therapeutic to indulge in that kind of mania every now and then. But I was just standing in line at campus coffee shop the other day and because I was wearing a Broncos shirt the guy behind me decided to strike up a conversation. figuring I was a sport guy he had to try to sell me on soccer right then and there because apparently the CSU woman's soccer team has a game in a few days, (or something like that, the pamphlet he gave me didn't make it with me out the door). I normally don’t care too much about people pushing their interest on me but this was especially annoying for two reasons. One: I have a few soccer fans friends who do this all the time, and two; last year was the world cup and no soccer fan I know has yet to shut up about it. one says that this year is THE year soccer is going to catch on in the US, just like he said  LAST year was the year soccer was going to catch one, and every previous year the  whole time I've known him. Last year was because it was the world cup and this year because it’s the year after the world cup and soccer fans think all the coverage it got is going to bring in all the fans. Here’s the thing, most Americans don’t care about the world cup, it’s just that there is little else we are allowed to care about when it’s going on.
There is a concept people should know about, a concept that the media dictates what we see as being important in our daily lives. Many studies have been done about how media affects us and how we see the world. It’s not just about the information we get on a specific issue affecting how we see that specific issue, it’s about how the trends in the news affect how individuals see the world. Local news has an overwhelming abundance of violent crime stories despite how little violent crime there is in proportion to actual crime. local news just have to compete for ratings so they focus attention grabbing stories and as a many think the communities they live in are much more dangerous than they really are. This is the reason why around World cup time it seems that the US actually enjoys soccer. When half of what one sees on TV or social media is related to soccer it becomes hard to talk about much else. I am obviously not a soccer fan and yet last year I too ended up in conversations about soccer almost daily. The trends in TV and news don’t go unnoticed, and people have a desire to keep up with current events. Thus even those with no interest jump on the band wagon so they have something to talk about around the water cooler and don’t get left behind
I really don’t have a problem with people who live by current events. I also have no problem with soccer fans in general. I am not saying it won’t ever catch on, this year or whenever, but even if it does I’m not a trend guy nor do I think I’ll ever be a fan. But please for the love of god stop reading into isolate incidents of interest as proof of actual trends. And please stop trying to sell me on soccer.


2 comments:

  1. Your anecdote at the beginning really sets the stage for what you are going to be talking about in the rest of your post, I was just hoping for more of an expansion on how "media affects how individuals see the world". Including what types of studies have been done about how media affects us and how we see the world, may make your claim about "many studies have been done" more credible. How does local news compete for ratings by using attention grabbing stories. It could really help your blog to add videos or news stories to back up your claims and it would also add a visual element that is not here.

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  2. I enjoyed the article Leonard... Great comparison... I once fell for this world cup craze as well... but I agree with Brynn .. Maybe a little more visuals next time

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