Google Trends In India Show The Top Searched Words During This Lockdown Have Been ‘Stress’, And, ‘Recipes’. We’re All Struggling But Cooking!
When the announcement of the lockdown came around the first time, I took it particularly badly. It gave me a feeling much to similar to the one I got when I had my first period. I was surprised and shocked. There was a relief that this meant things are better this way, but there was also a part of me that didn’t want this to happen. Uneasiness, distress and uncertainty about how long will it last, made it more uncomfortable, with mood swings coming in at full steam. And now, despite settling in with an uneasiness, the frustration has only amplified, considering it didn’t just last for 5 days, and we have no idea of how much longer we’d be suspended in this state.
And I know. I know that my reaction was exaggerated considering the fact that I am a 24-year-old who still has a job and is living with her parents without having to cook food on the daily. I get that there are a lot more people out there, for whom the situation of this lockdown has not been all that favourable and they possibly have it worse. Which is perhaps why, when the word about Google releasing its top Google trends during the period of lockdown was announced and words like stress, therapy and recipes made it to the top, we weren’t surprised.
With people taking the news of this lockdown hard and in their own way, there has been some understandable need to seek help during this uncertain time of distress, which explains why so many people have probably landed on google, trying to look up and define the kind of stress they are feeling. These are uncertain times, and no one knows and perhaps, for the first time, even Google doesn’t know what exactly this might be defined as. But I guess most of us have figured out that we don’t need to be pagal to seek therapy.
Job search has increased on Google trends
So did recipe search.
So basically we are going to Chinese how to eat good things.#googletrends #COVID2019india pic.twitter.com/YAN6ehbjwA— Little_clouds (@Littleclouds11) April 27, 2020
Also Read : 5 Ways This No-Sex Lockdown Period Can Actually Help Your Relationship
And while many have found it helpful and healthy to resort to help online in terms of understanding their situation better and of course, to deal with it better, there has also been quite a rage around the word, ‘recipes’. With too much time on everybody’s hands, seems like the entire population has shown a new found interest in the kitchen, by googling recipes of food that they’d now have to only make at home, with all the outlets nearly shut down in this lockdown. Guess we’ll all be equipped to take part in MasterChef at this rate!
Giving us a peek into the minds of people in this nation-wide lockdown, Google trends at least made us aware of the steep rise we saw in the levels of stress, anxiety and need to seek therapy in India. In fact, studies by the Indian Psychiatric Society suggest a 20% rise in the number of illnesses due to mental health, all the while Google Trends has shown a relatively higher search history in places like Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Mizoram, and Puducherry.
We understand the reason behind this spike in engagement relating to words about mental health and therapy, but we also hope that people around find a way to deal with this stress and come around to the idea of lockdown for however much longer we’ve to live in it.
