Why ‘high-emotional’ videos of World Cup tourists are going viral
World Cup social media is abuzz with positivity as videos show newfound fellowships between international fans that users say are worth celebrating.
Scots wear orange traffic cones and march down Boston avenues to piercing bagpipe melodies. Japanese soccer fans don game-day face paint as they sink their teeth into authentic Texas barbecue. Algerian visitors stand pridefully in Lawrence, Kansas, as locals unveil a rendering of the Algerian national flag delicately carved into the grass.
A seemingly endless trove of World Cup tourists and their interactions with American locals have been captured and spread across social media since the tournament kicked off earlier in June. The fellowship on display between representatives of far-flung nations has been cause for celebration across America and online, breathing a refreshing strain of positivity into the international competition, observers of the tournament say.
Experts in global studies and social media at Northeastern University say that at a time of increasing political tension and polarization in the United States and other countries, the viral videos have served as something of an antidote for locals and tourists alike.
“There’s something here about rekindling the very, very faint fires of a kind of globalism that looks positive,” said John Wihbey, professor of media and communications technology and assistant vice chancellor for strategic AI initiatives at Northeastern.
Ryan McGreary, 27, an airline employee and video game streamer, found himself explaining American baseball to visiting Scotland fans at a Red Sox game over the weekend.
A Massachusetts native, McGreary filmed similar interactions and posted them online for his followers to see. One of his most popular posts showed McGreary cheering and laughing alongside Scotland’s Tartan Army at Fenway Park as they inserted Red Sox references into traditional Scottish sport chants.
“This is the greatest day in Fenway I’ve ever had,” McGreary exclaims in the video from his jam-packed seat in right field. “And I’ve seen a World Series.”
Like other influencers, McGreary’s upbeat content caught the algorithmic wave, he told Northeastern Global News, boosting his Instagram follower count from less than 7,000 before the World Cup to nearly 20,000 by June 24.
His videos quickly launched him into cult fame among Boston sport fans and Scots abroad. Some of his World Cup posts received hundreds of thousands of likes 一 a significant jump from the 100 likes or fewer to which he was accustomed.
“Algorithms tend to uprank and promote high-emotion content,” Wihbey said. “It’s often pointed out as a negative, insofar as a lot of the high-emotion content is political infighting or name-calling or scandal.”
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The endearing examples of World Cup camaraderie are going viral today because of their emotional qualities as well, “but it’s a celebratory form of high-emotion, and that’s cool to see,” Wihbey said.
That’s because the virality is a byproduct of the same type of algorithmic processing that can, at other times, suck users into a spiral of rancorous doomscrolling, Wihbey said.
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Daniel Voionmaa, professor of cultures, societies and global studies at Northeastern, says the videos have dispelled some concerns held by foreigners about the America of today being dangerous or unfriendly toward outsiders, restoring their admiration for a place that at other times may have felt more welcoming.
“All my in-laws from Canada refuse to come here, and they are soccer fans. They said, ‘No way we’re going there,’” Voionmaa told NGN.
Indeed, at least one recent survey shows that the rest of the world seems to view the U.S. less favorably than in years past. According to Pew Research, positive favorability ratings for the U.S. are at or near their lowest since 2002 in many countries, including nations that qualified for the 2026 World Cup.
But having attended two World Cup matches in Boston himself with his children, Voionmaa said the prevailing feelings are connectedness and friendship.
“I think there’s a sense that America is getting more and more isolated from the world outside… and this shows that there’s something more important than that,” he said. “It is heartbreaking in a good sense 一 it’s beautiful.”
World Cup tourists also have pointed a mirror toward unique aspects of U.S. culture through their own videos, Wihbey said, giving Americans the chance to reflect on the parts of their collective identity worth celebrating.
“We get this kind of ‘reverse tourist gaze’ through the eyes of people who haven’t seen American culture up close. The big trucks, the Waffle Houses, the stadium infrastructure, the kind of supersized nature of American infrastructure and cultural life,” Wihbey said.
It can be difficult to recognize the joyful parts of our day-to-day lives, Wihbey added. “It takes an outsider to come show us how it’s different than other cultures and the rest of the world.”
Some European visitors have grown particularly fond of ranch dressing, for instance, an American condiment created in the 1950s that never found its way across the Atlantic despite its popularity in the states.
“The real hero of this World Cup is ranch dressing,” British comedian and Instagram personality Victor Vacheron said in a video as part of a series reacting to parts of American culture. “The way [Americans] talk about ranch, you’d think it’s one of humanity’s greatest achievements and, honestly, I’m starting to think it is.”
McGreary’s followers are drawn to his videos to witness cultural exchanges, he said. The Scots see “how great [America] is, and then we’re also seeing how great their culture is. Combine that with fun and drinking and sport, it just completely meshes together and creates a boom of viral videos,” he said.
Wihbey said the positivity surrounding the competition speaks to a deep yearning for connection between fans from all nations.
“Maybe the World Cup represents just a tiny bit of hope,” he said, “and the idea that America could be part of that in a positive way has come as a great relief to a lot of Americans.”
In the days after the Red Sox Game, McGreary was invited to appear on a national Scotland news broadcast, welcomed into the Scottish Society of Edmonton, Canada, and offered accommodation at the homes of Scots were he to visit.
“Hopefully this gets people out, changes their mindset on meeting people, having fun, talking to people you’ve never met,” McGreary said of his World Cup posts. “I don’t want it to end.”
