Google’s Zeitgeist 2013 – still somewhat out of it

For the last few years in late December google has done a cute video of what people search.  i started last year using this as an indication of how out of it i am as contrasted with  folks who are watching the media more closely.  So here are this years top searched terms.

1 Paul Walker

2 Boston Marathon Bombing
3 Nelson Mandela

4 Cory Monteith

5 iPhone 5s

6 Government Shutdown

7 James Gandolfini

8 Harlem Shake

9 Royal Baby

10 Adrian Peterson

Paul Watkins - Apparently this guy is popular

Paul Walker – Apparently this guy is popular

As was true last year, just under half of these i had never heard of (Paul Walker, Cory Monteith, Harlem Shake, Adrian Peterson) .  But i am not really embarrassed by this pop culture failing.  The Fast and Furious film series i am convinced are safely skippable.  The popular TV show Glee is similarly uncompelling to me.  The only thing about the Harlem Shake which is interesting to me is elements of why it became so popular so quickly (the memetic structure of it) .  i could care less about football.

google-zeitgeist_map-640x290

Google changed their format since last year and significantly down graded the prominence of images as a search.  Instead “Events” became the number 2 category, where i actually did passably well, given that i don’t have a television in my life (the only event i was unaware of was a lucrative boxing match).  I wrote about several of these events (The Boston Marathon Bombings, Government Shutdown, The Zimmerman Trail, The Syrian Conflict).