- If - as Google implies - this is a snapshot of the internet-connected
zeitgeist, then the world is more frivolously dim-witted than we ever suspected
-
- http://www.google.com/intl/en/press/zeitgeist2006.html
-
- Google News - Top Searches in 2006
-
- 1. paris hilton
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- 2. orlando bloom
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- 3. cancer
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- 4. podcasting
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- 5. hurricane katrina
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- 6. bankruptcy
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- 7. martina hingis
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- 8. autism
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- 9. 2006 nfl draft
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- 10. celebrity big brother 2006
-
-
- As the year draws to its close,it's clear that the competition
for most morale-lowering news report of the previous 12 months has been
a hot one.
-
- Global warming, the war in Iraq and the crisis in Darfur
have all done their bit - with Korean nuclear tests and Lebanon adding
to the sense that long-range optimism may be a symptom of certifiable mental
illness, rather than a viable way of looking at the world.
-
- But, although I know it doesn't really compete with any
of these genuine crises, I couldn't help but feel sandbagged by the revelation,
just before the contest closed, that Paris Hilton had topped the list of
Google news searches for 2006.
-
- In fact, I didn't actually believe it the first time
I read it. Surely there would be some qualifying detail further down pointing
out that this reflected the figures only for news searches on over-privileged
party girls.
-
- But no. Paris went head-to-head - if you'll forgive the
term - with the most urgent issues of 2006 and came out on top.
-
- Strikingly the only entry in the top 10 that actually
related to a specific news event was Hurricane Katrina, which came an unimpressive
fifth after searches on Orlando Bloom, cancer and podcasting.
-
- If - as Google implies - this is a snapshot of the internet-connected
zeitgeist, then the world is more frivolously dim-witted than we ever suspected.
-
- That's a sizeable "if" of course. Perhaps all
those millions of Paris Hilton searches were typed in by web-users who
had just laid down the Allgemeine Zeitung or The Wall Street Journal and
wanted a brief respite from serious issues.
-
- Or perhaps Google News is only only used by those in
pursuit of high-level gossip.
-
- There is some reassurance in the listings for the top
10 searches which began with the words "What is", on which "What
is Hezbollah?" takes the pole position - suggesting a community eager
to instruct itself about world affairs.
-
- Unfortunately, this sense is undermined by the fact that
the following nine queries under this heading relate to pharmaceutical
drugs, so it's entirely possible that all those searchers thought that
the Shia Islamist militant group was actually a proprietory defence against
bird flu.
-
- "Who is Hezbollah?|" also turns up as second
in the "Who is ..." top 10, just after "Who is Borat",
which only confirms the general cluelessness of searchers.
-
- I fear that the obvious implication of Paris Hilton's
podium position is the true one. People care far less about matters that
might affect their lives (or those of others) than about the doings of
an over-privileged celebrity.
-
- Oddly, this turns out not to be a pathology of advanced
capitalist society. Check out Google Trends on Paris Hilton and you discover
that the internet users of Guatamala, South Africa and Venezuela were more
likely, per head of population, to Google her than other countries.
-
- Of course, these searches are hardly likely to be initiated
in the barrios and favelas, but even so it seems counter-intuitive.
-
- And depressing. If Google's figures are correct (and
they do come with a precautionary note), the internet users of Venezuela
were more interested in Paris Hilton in 2006 than in their own President
Hugo Chavez.
-
- There's not a lot to be done about this, of course, and
in the grander scheme of things it weighs nothing against far harsher proofs
of the world's disarray.
- But I would suggest that until Paris Hilton drops down
the league table, the far more serious problems the world faces are less
likely to be solved.
-
- http://comment.independent.co.uk/columnists_m_
z/thomas_sutcliffe/article2103705.ece
- -- Thomas Sutcliffe/Indy
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