How to Heal and How to Grieve
2021, Told Through People’s Most Intimate Questions
Whether for better or for worst, the Google search bar is one of the defining elements of our contemporary world. Alienating on the one hand, but liberating on the other, this is where we turn to ask our deepest questions, our stupidest queries, and all the things that were too taboo to discuss with real people. Whatever professors and public speakers may say, in real life there are stupid questions, ones that will make everyone raise their eyebrows. Not on Google. You can literally go to the search bar and ask how do I search on Google, and you will get an answer. Google does not raise its eyebrows. Google loves your stupidity, it loves your self-doubt. It thrives off it. It monetizes it.
2020: the year of why
That is why I am oddly fascinated by the round-up videos released yearly by the company. The “Year in Search” clips tell us a lot about what has been happening in the world, but also how people have been feeling, where their concerns and doubts have been.
Last year was a year of trying to comprehend what was going on in a world that didn’t resemble itself anymore. 2020 was a year of why.
Why can’t I sleep?
Why do people dream?
Why can’t I fly?
Why is it called Covid-19?
Why is the NBA postponed?
Why are schools closed?
Why is toilet paper sold out?
Why am I so tired?
Why black lives matter?
And…
Why are we still asking the same questions?
2021: A year of how
Many of us started 2021 with only one hope: that our year would be better than the last. That hope was dashed astonishingly quickly: by the 6th of January, an angry alt-right racist mob was storming American democracy.
Still, in 2021, we were beyond asking why. We had the answers, or we had given up on finding them.
In a sign of human resilience, our questions shifted to how. How do we heal? People asked in Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, English, as…
