The Most Important Things to Know
Google’s Zeitgeist has compiled its annual Most Popular Searches for 2007. The results are broken down by category, and needless to say, I won’t sully myself or waste your time by discussing who’s hottest in the political scene, pop culture or the sports world. Instead, let’s go right to the heart of the matter and reveal the 3 most frequently asked questions on Google.
(Drumroll, please.)
“Who is God?”
“What is love?”
“How to kiss?”
The first two aren’t surprises, but the third puzzles me.
Re: the first question. It’s almost impossible for people – even atheists from time to time, I suppose – not to conjecture about the spiritual or supernatural realm. Writers and thinkers from Blaise Pascal in the 17th century to Jean-Paul Sartre, U2’s Bono and Salmon Rushdie in the 20th speak of the “God-shaped hole” or void in the human soul that we tend to fill with inferior substitutes. Unfortunately, finding truth with a capital “T” via a search engine is likely to lead us to thousands of highly eclectic pages of other people’s personal opinions, superstitions, dogmas and diatribes. It’s valuable to understand the width and breadth of spiritual thought, but in the end it’s up to the individual to sort it all out for oneself and decide what to believe and what not to believe.
The second question deals with a mystery almost as enigmatic as the Divine Itself. The word is used so casually and so constantly in contemporary society that it’s virtually lost any real meaning or significance it might once have had. Judging from the annals of history and this morning’s news, however, there’s been precious little of it around from the dawn of man right up to the present day and I don’t hold out much hope of that sorry situation improving any time in the near future.
The third one’s rather curious, at least to me. I always thought kissing was pretty much instinctive and got perfected with practice. Moreover, I can’t help but wonder: who are all these thousands upon thousands typing in this question? Pre-teens looking for a romantic skills Head Start Program? (in keeping with our national “no kid left behind” policy, you know.) Adults whose love lives aren’t as sizzly as those on ”Sex and the City” or “Desperate Housewives” or “Grey’s Anatomy”? Or have we become a society so riddled with insecurities and obsessed with perfection that we now need step-by-step tutorials for actions that used to come naturally to us?
FYI, the Most Popular Recipe Search for 2007 was (get the barf bag ready, folks) for a scary concoction ominously called “Master Cleanse,” made from maple syrup and lemon juice seasoned liberally with cayenne pepper. Ewwww.
Can’t we just have a new idea for meatloaf instead? Please?
–phoebe kate