This year has got to be one of the weirdest years ever. As we entered a new decade, tensions rose between the U.S. and Iran after missile strikes killed a prominent Iranian official. The deaths of several dear celebrities (looking at you, Kobe, and Chadwick Boseman) sent shockwaves throughout the nation. And lastly, a nationwide lockdown that spanned the course of 8 months has us wondering what “normal” used to feel like.
While browsing the internet, I came across a publication by Google, which cited the most frequently searched terms this year. You can find a more comprehensive list here (https://trends.google.com/trends/yis/2020/US/). Looking back, I’m both surprised at how quickly times have changed, as well as how things have stayed the same.
Over five years ago Ebola had medical officials and experts scared shitless (yep, that was in 2014). A year later, Bill Gates gave a Ted Talk on how important it was to be prepared for future epidemics in the scenario that a global epidemic occurred (wow, surprise!). While we’ve seen major advances in technology, science, the arts, and human rights, I’m still curious as to what direction the world will take.
Using a word-cloud generator, I inputted some of this year’s most searched terms in the shape of the U.S. I thought it would be cool to share what America thought was important to them this year, especially since this year’s been really hectic!
One thought on “2020 vision”
Wow, this is really cool! I always find Google’s most searched topics to be interesting, but I really love the idea of putting them into the outline of America, to show the largest topics which the United States has been talking about. I find it really interesting that you can see the mix of politics and entertainment being America’s biggest concerns, like “Joker” being right below “Joe Biden”.
Google’s “Year in Search” as a whole also just made me laugh this year. I think it’s hilarious that “Entanglement” ended up as the second most searched definition, with “WAP” in first. Even if the rest of the list was more sober (“Antebellum”, “Pandemic”, and “Asymptomatic”) I find it almost heart warming that people haven’t changed, at core. There’s a real goldmine of interesting information to show where people’s minds were at this year, and it’s really cool you found a way to visually express that.