The Leaving America Trend Was Inevitable
I was reading that New Yorker piece on people trying to slip out of the country — passports, paperwork, the whole bureaucratic obstacle course — and it hit me: the leaving America trend isn’t a phenomenon anymore. It’s content. A fully developed genre. The kind of thing you binge at midnight because your brain wants background noise that whispers, “Sure, you too could disappear into Portugal if you found a cheap enough flight.”
And honestly, I don’t remember when it started — maybe right after the first influencer claimed she found “inner peace” by drinking mango smoothies in Tamarindo. Right. Inner peace. Sponsored by Chase Sapphire.
Half the country is fed up, half the country is restless, and the algorithm is standing in the corner rubbing its hands like, Yes… give me another reel of a hammock swaying in slow motion.
When Emigration Becomes a Plotline
There’s a specific narrative beat these videos hit — the sigh, the overhead shot of a carry-on, the “I’m finally doing it” voiceover that sounds like someone announcing a breakup with a city bus system. And the comments? Off the charts. People treating relocation like it’s a season finale cliffhanger.
Then you scroll down and see the same couple posting daily “updates on our move” even though they’re still in Phoenix and haven’t packed anything except a ring light. That’s the part that gets me — the way the dream outruns the reality by several zip codes.
Meanwhile, the actual process? The forms, the logistics, the part where you sit in a government office wondering why the number counter hasn’t moved since Tuesday — none of that ever makes the feed. Because paperwork doesn’t trend.
Costa Rica: The Algorithm’s Spirit Animal
And somewhere in this swirl is that one friend — we all have one — who decides Costa Rica is the answer after watching a single TikTok shot at golden hour. I mean, the sun does most of the work in those videos. You could point an iPhone at a dumpster at 6:42 p.m. and still get something that suggests “new beginnings.”
Next thing you know, they’re researching expat groups and talking about buying a scooter even though they can’t merge confidently on I-95. The fantasy gets louder. The details get softer. And the reality — the boring, Tuesday-morning, humidity-clogged reality — evaporates like it never existed.
I had a coworker once who swore he was “moving to Costa Rica this year.” He said that for seven straight years. Never got a passport. Barely got a new lunch routine.
Media Loves an Escape Hatch
It makes sense, though. America sells drama, and the media machine knows a silent truth — nothing pulls attention like someone trying to bolt. A genuine exit stirs something feral in all of us. Not envy. Not admiration. More like a weird curiosity: Are they serious or is this just a long trailer for a show that never premieres?
And the language people use — “We’re starting our new life abroad” — has the same energy as those HGTV couples who think moving one town over is a character arc. We’ve crossed a line.
Sometimes I think the leaving America trend isn’t about leaving at all. It’s about giving your dissatisfaction a soundtrack and a backdrop you don’t have to commit to.
Maybe That’s the Point
People aren’t booking flights. They’re booking feelings. Quick hits of imagined freedom. A place where healthcare doesn’t cost the same as a used Honda, where public transit exists, where nobody knows your political opinions, or cares enough to ask — the fantasy is clean. Reality rarely is.
And here we are, watching strangers “move abroad” without ever leaving their apartments.
Yeah… that tracks.