On social media, the top descriptors to complete the phrase “My husband is …” are “the best,” “my best friend,” “amazing,” “the greatest”
and “so cute.” On Google, one of the top five ways to complete that phrase is also “amazing.” So that checks out.
Alone with a screen and anonymous, people tend to tell Google things they don’t reveal
to social media; they even tell Google things they don’t tell to anybody else.
Type in “I always …” and you may see the suggestion, based on other people’s searches, “I always feel tired” or “I always have
diarrhea.” This can offer a stark contrast to social media, where everybody “always” seems to be on a Caribbean vacation.
According to 2014 data from Spotify Insights on what people actually listen to, men
and women have similar tastes; 29 of the 40 musicians women listened to most frequently were also the artists most frequently listened to by men.
Once you’ve looked at enough aggregate search data, it’s hard to take the curated selves we see on social media too seriously.
Just how different is the real world from the world on social media?
The pressure to look a certain way on social media can do much more than distort our image of the musicians other people actually listen to.
The other four: “a jerk,” “annoying,” “gay” and “mean.”
While spending five years staring at a computer screen learning about some of human beings’ strangest
and darkest thoughts may not strike most people as a good time, I have found the honest data surprisingly comforting.
Social media is making us miserable.
