Perhaps nothing is a more honest look into our brains than our Google searches. They are basically everything we want to know when we think no one is looking. But someone is watching: Google. It remembers everything, and it might just remember 2018 as the most bonkers year of them all.
Today, the company released its 2018 Year in Search, documenting the most-searched people, topics, events, and places in the world. While years past turned up inspiring people like Olympian Simone Biles and Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, 2018 had a decidedly different story to tell.
2018 was the year of YouTube scandals, of the men of #MeToo getting unearthed, of racist TV stars — of cults, for crying out loud. Therefore, the things we Googled were similarly bleak. The most Googled actors of 2018 are Logan Paul, Bill Cosby, Sylvester Stallone, Pete Davidson, Michael B. Jordan, Allison Mack, Noah Centineo, Bradley Cooper, Roseanne Barr, and Chadwick Boseman. Four of these people — Paul, Cosby, Mack, and Barr — were in the news in 2018 for problematic and even downright awful behavior. Also on the list of most-Googled people is another bummer of a dude, Brett Kavanaugh.
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If you've been lucky enough to forget just why these people are notable, then let's do a quick refresher: Logan Paul kicked off 2018 by filming the body of someone who had died by suicide, Bill Cosby was found guilty of sexual assault, Allison Mack was involved in an allegedly abusive cult, Roseanne Barr was fired from Roseanne after a racist tweet, and Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court despite accusations of sexual misconduct. Should auld acquaintance be forgot indeed, let's not bring this energy with us into the new year.
It says something that the most prominent people of the year happen to be the ones associated with its lowest points, and certainly paints a dour portrait the current state of the world. It's easy to get despondent, to wallow in the fact that there clearly wasn't as much to celebrate this year, but at least there's the fact that it's over. These dark moments are in the past, and now 2019 is full of bright and shiny opportunities for celebrities to do some better things worth Googling. Please, no more cults.