We can easily experience each other’s customs, culture and traditions without having to step foot on an airplane. But when we interact with rich customs from afar are we really experiencing the culture, or interpreting the highlights?
Trends govern our algorithms on social media, and exposure to things online affect how we form our ideas of others. For some, a European-inspired summer means simply partaking in a life of leisure, but for others, it can mean traveling itself and experiencing tourist attractions firsthand. In reality, a Euro summer is whatever the consumer of the trend makes it.
According to Story Magazine UK, Euro summer has been romanticized throughout history.” Starting with movies and TV such as Roman Holiday, “Gossip Girl” and Mamma Mia. All of these feature characters experiencing a life free of any duties and swathed with luxury. Euro summer is about experiencing the world with a sense of insouciance and bliss. The fact that the Euro summer trend is derived from movies, music and magazines, that serve as an expose of living in laid-back-luxury, shows how history shapes modern trends surrounding the romantic interpretation of other cultures, and in particular, how it can begin to frame perception of these other cultures for the worse.
This harm manifests through the relationship between tourists and locals. MDPI, a popular European forum, notes how the influx of tourism in Europe has caused long-term residences to be converted to Airbnbs. This gentrification causes locals to experience inflation and lack of housing.
Michael Armsworthy, a philosophy student who studies human interactions across cultures discussed what happens when we digest culture through trends. Michael noted that when we distill traditions for a trend, they incidentally become homogenized. We wind up “reduc(ing) culture to a performance” and run the risk of “breed(ing) contempt” among different groups of people through commercial misrepresentation of their culture.
This false view of Europe and its people can be harmful in instances like Paris syndrome. The phenomenon is described as the overwhelming physical, and emotional distress brought on by a culture shock, when hyper-romanticized places like Paris fail to meet high expectations. During one extreme period Forbes noted that the Japanese embassy in Paris had to medically chaperone over 20 Japanese tourists a year due to the immense physical and psychological distress brought on by their extreme disappointment.
As Euro summer seeps deeper into collective conscience and popular taste, so do the ideas and interpretations of the continent. Ultimately causing a shift in perception that can alter interaction among local communities and tourists. WDSU notes instances where tourists in Europe desecrated sacred monuments such as the Colosseum. The false ideas of Europe that tourists bring with them can affect how they behave and subsequently how they will be received. Their preconceived notions may cause them to rationalize their experiences and actions to uphold their idealistic view of Europe.
First-year biology major Pax Markworth spent a year in Germany and noted how when we commodify parts of a culture we often brush away the real struggles of the people within that culture. He argued that we tend to focus on “what’s aesthetic and not what affects the people living there.” Difficulties like lack of air conditioning during hot summer months, walking long distances in the heat to reach public transit and rapid inflation brought on by tourism all colored his trip as something other than the commonly idealized version of Europe we might expect. The divide between reality and commercialized perspective demonstrates how trends reflect aspects of others lives we would like to experience.
While it is not inherently bad to participate in a trend, misunderstanding and harmful perceptions are brought up when trends idealize struggles and slowly mask the very thing they hope to mimic. As trends and their manifestations come and go from our digital and real lives, it is important to consider the responsibility we hold in how they are created, and how it causes people to be received between cultures. On an individual level this could be as simple as participating in a trend, yet small actions amount to large effects on our communities and our interactions with other people. As it pertains to Euro summer, it is important to acknowledge our culture and past experiences so that we don’t dilute what’s sacred to others. As consumers we are also ambassadors for our own community. By understanding how experiencing a filtered version of culture through media can cause our actions to become perverse and a catalyst for quiet classism, we can better improve ourselves, our connections with others and subsequently the world.
