Google Trends: Gender Reveal Party Ignites New Wildfire; Stimulus Check vs. Unemployment
Trend analysis: unemployment and stimulus check, as well as gender reveal parties and wildfires.
Explosive gender reveal party
An explosive device used at a gender reveal party in Southern California seems to be the source of a massive fire in El Dorado county on Sunday night. This is only one of many wildfires ignited by a device used to reveal a baby’s gender at parties. According to the wildfire already spans more than 7,000 acres. Wildfires have been severely ravaging counties along the west coast during the 2020 wildfire season. 2020 has been the year with the largest wildfire reports according to the Department of Forestry and Fire Protection of California. They also report climate change as a leading factor in why wildfire season starts earlier and ends later as years go by.
Google trend searches of the terms ‘wildfires’ and ‘gender reveal party’ within the past 7 days show a rise in searches for ‘gender reveal party’ between Sept. 6 and Sept. 7, which is the day news broke of the incident. ‘Wildfires’ on the other hand, has seen an increase in searches as western wildfires continue to devastate thousands of acres.
As seen above, there was a moment on the morning of Sept. 7 in which ‘gender reveal party’ searches are significantly higher than ‘wildfires’. Yet trends later that night show a decrease in popularity for ‘gender reveal party’ while searches for ‘wildfires’ continue to rise. You can follow a more updated interactive chart for these trends here.
Stimulus checks and unemployment during the COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 precautions prompted the temporary, and for many permanent, closure of numerous businesses leaving millions unemployed. Congress enacted the CARES Act as a way to provide financial assistance to those negatively affected by the pandemic. Stimulus checks of up to $1,200 were distributed to qualifying citizens.
A Google trends analysis reveals the overlap between searches for ‘unemployment’ and ‘stimulus check’. With many stay-at-home mandates beginning in March, an increase in searches for the term ‘unemployment’ is logical. As talk of stimulus checks and the CARES Act in media increased, so did Google searches for ‘stimulus check’. The search for the term was notably higher on April 12–18. This is largely due to Stimulus checks being distributed during the second week of April. Overall, trends for ‘unemployment’ are much more popular than ‘stimulus check’. As time goes by, searches for the latter have declined while searches for ‘unemployment’ have plateaued.
