What is the world searching for?

Cricket matches, COVID-19, sea shanties, and more, according to Google’s 2021 Year in Search. And mittens. Yes, like the infamous Bernie Sanders mittens. Mixed in with serious topics, such as the impact of climate change, sustainability, hate crimes, and natural disasters, some rather more humorous trends in searches similar to Bernie’s mittens can be found.

Here’s an example: All around the world, “how to move with plants” was searched more than “how to move with kids” and “how to move with pets.” It seems people are becoming plant parents instead of pet or people parents more and more! 

Searches in the U.S. for “what is a meme stock” were 12 times higher this year than they were in 2020 as a result of the crazy comebacks that AMC and GameStop stocks made with the help of Reddit investors. Who knew Reddit could have such power over the stock market?

After the global hit show Squid Game aired, search interest in “red light green light,” a childhood game of many that had a slightly different twist in the series, and “honeycomb cookies,” a sweet treat made popular by the show, reached a record high worldwide. 

Now, back to the sea shanties–searches for them reached a global all-time high this year. Since when did sea shanties become popular? Well, probably since the TikTok trend of singing along with a shanty called Wellerman became a thing. Junior Charlotte Myers, a choir student, enjoys the trend. “I think the Wellerman song is pretty funny,” she said. Soon the Wellerman did indeed come, though he came to phones across the world, bringing music instead of sugar and tea. 

Wondering what the most searched break up of 2021 is? As it turns out, Daft Punk is. The dynamic duo is finally calling it quits after a nearly 30-year-long music career. They may have said, “work is never over” in their classic song Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger, but that was in 2001. Now, 20 years later, they have decided that their work is, in fact, over. 

And finally, low-rise jeans, bright colors, midriff shirts and other fashion trends of the 2000s are back! The world searched for “y2k” this year more than any year before. Google says that searches for “y2k theme party” increased by over 4,700%. Not everything on the internet can be trusted, but it’s a pretty safe bet to say 2000’s aesthetics are totally in these days.

2021 may not have been the most normal year, but humans will be humans, searching for fun and entertainment in any situation!