The world is watching them but they want
out. Question: why were we so absolutely
captivated by the cave rescue in
Thailand? All 12 boys and their soccer
coach trapped for more than two weeks
deep inside a flooded Thai cave. From
Japan, to Kenya, India, Denmark, the U.S.
turns out that millions of us were
thinking and worrying about these kids
And for those on the ground in Thailand
during the rescue...
That's not to
mention the reported 60,000 individuals
involved in the operation in Thailand.
60,000. In early July 2018, Google search
results for "Thai cave rescue" were in the
hundreds of millions, and everyone from
Elon Musk to soccer star Ronaldo were
throwing support behind the 12 kids and
one coach. Why was the world so hooked by
this rescue and, more importantly, what
sort of lasting impact will all this
attention have on the kids themselves? So
right up there,
that is the cave. It's unbelievably, it's so
hot here. We're definitely in the middle
of the jungle. Wait, stop, ah, hold on!
Let's not go to Thailand quite yet. Bear
with me for a second here... OK. Let's first
determine why this tale or really any
story at all
piques our interest. So first of all it's
a good story.
Here are these kids who are off on a
jaunt with their coaches, it's a soccer
team, and somehow as you watch the story
unfold you begin to bear some
responsibility for them. I have made it
my problem, which is kind of interesting
to a psychologist because they are in
some way no more real to me than
fictional characters.
Strong stories, movies or just news have the
ability to capture our imaginations,
transporting us into distant worlds, and
if our attention is truly seized by a
story, parts of your brain may actually
function as if you're there. Think sweaty
palms and action movies. When you are
taken up into that narrative world, there
are ways in which your brain acts
as if somehow that world has become real
to you. And the more transported into a
story you feel, the more you're gonna
follow it. And the more you follow, the
more the media will produce about it,
i.e. Hollywood sequels or rolling news
coverage. And if you toss universalities
like children in danger and a puzzle,
then we're hooked. The cave rescue
may have played out on the news much
like a film with appealing characters
and a good plot, but northern Thailand...
it's a very real place. In fact, this is
Chiang Rai, a sleepy border city near
Myanmar where it all happens.
Monuments are being constructed here to
the rescued kids and that is just the
beginning. The kids are being invited all
over the world by media companies.
Filmmakers are here and action scripts
are already being written. They've been
invited to the World Cup, the boys have
been ordained by monks, and now they're
being protected by the Thai government.
And this is all happening, all of it,
because, well, because of us.
Thai PBS had like seven teams, were
covering that story. We had special
programs on TV for five hours per day. We
have high rating at that time. They stand
by all the time to see what happened
from the cave. They, they watched, they watched
that story 24 hours. U.S. news,
it also saw a ratings boom. ABC saw some of
its highest ratings for the 9 p.m. slot
with 20/20 special Triumph in Thailand.
Some media agency, they slipped in front
of the cave. They didn't take a race.
So, some Thai
journalist told us they saw a more interest
in this coverage of boys stuck in a cave
than they did in a 2014 story of their own
government being toppled in a coup. Yeah,
you heard that right. Back in the U.S., we
saw news outfits releasing Interactives
and diagrams, all further stoking our
imaginations.
The New York Times even released an
augmented reality experience, allowing us
to explore the cave from the inside. You
feel yourself trying to participate.
The type of story that engages people in
real life is when that story has the
same type of narrative arc as all of
these fictional narratives that we've
watched.
I want you to imagine that you're in a
movie theater, and let's say you're
watching Jaws. And in the case of Jaws,
there's this woman, she's about to get in
the water,
there could be a shark there. Most
viewers, I think, will have this impulse
to yell, "Don't go in the water!" It's too
late to say, "Don't go in the cave," but you
can imagine someone making a movie based
on this. "Hey guys, we're here on the site
where the media is. The cave is right
behind us, where the 13 boys, we just
learned, they came out of the cave. I
couldn't be more excited, this story has
meant so much to me as I followed it
here in Thailand this summer. We're here
really looking at this as a movie that
could inspire millions of people across
the globe."
Last we checked, more than a dozen cave
rescue movies were already being written.
But, here's the thing: real or fictional,
we may participate in stories in a
similar fashion. But this attention, it
can have a huge impact on the very real
lives of people caught up in news events.
Remember the Chilean mining accident?
Credible new video from inside the mine
in Chile. There were notes attached to it.
Since the
2010 incident, some of the miners have
reportedly experienced unemployment,
psychological breakdowns, and trouble
forming relationships.
From Titanic to Apollo 13, to any
number of documentaries,
we know the endings to historical films
even before they're released, right? So
this begs the question: do we even care
about a story's resolution? And, if not,
what's driving our continued interest?
That guy, he's an artist. We
stumbled upon his team making this
statue, which depicts the Navy SEAL who
lost his life during the rescue. He
cruised up in a golf cart while we were filming.
What's so interesting about chasing that
artist down, whom you saw earlier, is that,
I mean, it just makes me realize, I'm sure
you're realizing it also, it's not about the
kids who are stuck in the cave—it has
nothing to do with them and has
everything to do with us, it has everything
to do with that artist, who is signing
autographs right in front of this monument, and it
has everything to do with the fact I'm
talking to a camera, and have a
microphone attached to me, and there were
thousands of reporters here because it's
all about us. It's all about our
attention, not the safety of the kids in
the cave, or at least it feels like that to
me right now. So maybe, just maybe, we're
watching not because we care so much
about those involved in these events, but
instead because deep down we care about
how the mission to save them makes us
feel, and makes us feel about the world
around us.
Thank you so much for watching another
video about the Thai cave rescue. There
was irony strewn throughout this entire
piece, I think. Nevertheless, please
subscribe to watch more NBC Left Field.