The battle between the Old World and the New routinely plays out on social media. On TikTok, Americans have questioned why people in France and Italy don’t drink as much water as people in the United States. Others wonder who would win a fight — 100 Brits or 100 Americans. Many Europeans satirize what they assume life in the United States is like. (“I wake up at 8 a.m. and immediately start shopping on Amazon.”)

旧大陆与新大陆的较量在社交媒体上屡见不鲜。TikTok上，美国人会疑惑为何法国人和意大利人的喝水量不如美国人，还有人好奇100个英国人和100个美国人打架谁会赢。许多欧洲人会讽刺他们眼中的美国生活（“我早上8点一睁眼立马打开亚马逊购物）。

Recently, TikTok users on both sides of the pond have started to debate the American dream, and where the concept of it stands in 2025. Here’s what to know.

最近，大西洋两岸的TikTok用户开始争论美国梦，以及这个概念在2025年的现状。以下是相关看点。

OK, give me some background.

先来说说背景

There’s a long tradition on TikTok, and on roughly every other medium, of Europeans and Americans sharing insights and criticisms of each other’s cultures, and often playfully teasing each other.

在TikTok以及几乎所有其他媒体上，欧美网友分享对彼此文化的见解与批评、时常互相打趣调侃，是一项久远的传统。

A tourist from the United States might post a video about his impressions of Parisian hospitality (or lack thereof), while a Spanish exchange student in the United States might share what surprised her about American high schools. The videos provide a glimpse into how different cultures perceive each other, stereotypes and all, and demonstrate how the reality of lived experience is often different than what’s portrayed in pop culture or in the news.

一位美国游客可能会发布视频分享对巴黎人待客之道（或缺乏待客之道）的印象，而在美国做交换生的西班牙学生或许会分享美国高中让她意外的地方。这些视频展现了不同文化间的相互认知（包括各种刻板印象），也展现出真实生活往往与流行文化或新闻报道中的样子大相径庭。

How did the American dream enter this debate?

美国梦如何卷入争论？

The litigation of the American dream ramped up last week as a result of a TikTok video posted by Janis Groß, a German content creator. His video, in which he lampooned the concept of the American dream, took off on Reddit. In the video, Mr. Groß described the reality of the American dream as “working 60 hour weeks so your boss can buy a yacht, being more afraid of a medical bill than climate change, fast food on every corner and fresh food behind a paywall, and half the country fighting over who’s dumber: Trump or the people who worship him.”

上周，德国内容创作者亚尼斯·格罗斯发布了一段TikTok视频，引发了关于美国梦的激烈争论。他在视频中嘲讽美国梦的内容在Reddit平台迅速走红。格罗斯在视频里描述，美国梦的现实是“每周工作60小时，只为老板能买游艇；比起气候变化，更怕收到医疗账单；街角全是快餐，新鲜食材却要高价买；全国一半人在争论谁更蠢：特朗普，还是那些崇拜他的人”。

The video led to heated discussions on Reddit and TikTok, where Europeans and Americans debated the validity of Mr. Groß’s claims and argued over whose lifestyle is better.

这段视频在Reddit和TikTok引发激烈讨论，欧美网友围绕格罗斯观点的正确性展开争辩，还争论起谁的生活方式更优越。

And what do American TikTok users have to say?

美国TikTok用户怎么看？

While plenty of Americans objected to Mr. Groß’s take, some clearly agreed with him. Many of the Americans turned to audio pulled from a TikTok video that was posted by a travel influencer in 2023 — long before the current debate.

虽然不少美国人反对格罗斯的看法，但也有很多人明确表示认同。许多美国网友引用了旅行博主布林·伊利斯2023年发布的TikTok视频中提取的一段音频——远早于此次争论爆发前。

“I think the new American dream is to leave,” Bryn Elise, the influencer, said at the start of that video, which received more than 75,000 likes on its own, and served as the soundtrack for numerous other videos.

“我觉得新的美国梦是逃离，”伊利斯在视频开头说道。这段视频本身获得了超过7.5万个赞，还被用作无数其他视频的背景音。

In the video, she added that the new dream was “to pack up and head to a quiet European town or a beachside village in Asia, somewhere where we aren’t being poisoned by our food, we don’t need two to three jobs to survive and where health care isn’t a luxury but the norm.”

她在视频中补充，新的美国梦是“收拾行囊，去往欧洲的宁静小镇或亚洲的海滨村落——在那里，我们不会被食物毒害，不用打两三份工才能糊口，医疗保健也不是奢侈品，而是常态”。

In an interview, Ms. Elise said she was inspired to make her video by the frustration she was seeing everywhere she looked.

伊利斯在接受采访时表示，她制作这段视频的灵感源于身边无处不在的挫败感。

“In the U.S., the old idea of the ‘American dream’ feels unattainable now,” she said. “People are overworked, struggling to make ends meet, and feeling like we can’t even get basic things like health care or quality food.”

“在美国，‘美国梦’的旧有概念如今已遥不可及。”她说。“人们过度劳累，勉强维持生计，连医疗保健、优质食物这些基本需求都难以满足。”

As a traveler, she said she routinely meets people who have moved abroad and regained balance in their lives. She added that the video was intended to be a reminder that Americans had the freedom to pack and live wherever they wish.

作为旅行者，她称自己经常遇到移居海外后重获生活平衡的人。她还说，这段视频想提醒大家，美国人拥有打包行囊，去任何想去的地方生活的自由。

She said her video most likely resonated because so many people felt stuck and the concept of changing things gave them hope.

她表示，视频之所以能引发共鸣，很可能是因为太多人感到陷入困境，而做出改变的想法给了他们希望。

“It inspired people but also struck a nerve because it’s sad that we all feel this way,” she said.

“这段视频既鼓舞了人们，也触动了大家的神经——因为我们都有这种感受，实在令人难过，”她说。

In another video that has racked up nearly 300,000 likes, the filmmaker Baron Ryan offers his own take on the new American dream, saying it is “to go to Hemingway’s Paris, say ‘goodbye to all that,’ live somewhere walkable where a busted arm won’t kill your credit score.”

另一段获得近30万个赞的视频中，电影人巴伦·瑞安分享了自己对新美国梦的理解：“去往海明威笔下的巴黎，说‘告别这一切’；住在一个适合步行的地方，摔断胳膊也不会让你的信用评分崩盘。”

So what does all this mean?

这一切意味着什么？

The theme of many of the videos, posted by Americans and others, indicates a frustration with what the United States once promised, and the belief many now have that that promise no longer exists. They also reflect a trend in which many Americans are moving abroad.

无论是美国人还是其他人发布的这些视频核心主题都体现出对美国曾经的承诺的失望，以及许多人如今认为这份承诺已不复存在。这些内容也反映出一个趋势：越来越多美国人选择移居海外。

Of course, a move abroad in the age of social media comes with its own set of culture shocks to examine — perfect fodder for another set of videos on the differences between the United States and Europe. And the content mine churns on.

当然，在社交媒体时代移居海外总会遇到新的文化冲击——而这恰好成为下一批讨论欧美差异的视频素材。内容创作的矿藏还在不断产出。