Too late...you pressed SEARCH!!

It is an unfortunate truth that in this world of consumerism that we live in we tend to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing.

We have all, in a quiet or private moment searched on the internet for something that may be of fleeting interest, to satisfy an outstanding question or even as the basis on which to ponder about setting off in a new career or lifestyle direction.

In 2015, although only just in the last week or so coming to the attention of the mainstream media, the organisation Fixr.com who provide data on pricing for, amongst other sectors, the construction world produced a series of world maps onto which they had plotted the most searched for items for each country or region across all of the five continents.

Their data was gathered from the Google auto-complete tool used by those seeking answers on costs for and of things principally "How much does......(insert item or service here)....cost?".

The answers cannot be relied upon as a truly accurate capture of the mood or motivation of the peoples of nations worldwide but nevertheless they have thrown up some very interesting, revealing and somewhat disturbing.

Here is a cross section and my own analysis of the mapping details.

In the UK the main line of enquiry related to the cost of living, perhaps an indication of an attempt to cut down on household spending as a spin off of all of the TV programmes on lifestyle factors such as "Live well for less" or more deeply a yearning for a simpler, cheaper existence. There has been speculation that the nation has passed the tipping point for accumulating material goods and is now more interested in quality of life. In contrast the French and Spanish share an inquisitiveness in food and cigarettes supporting the widely held belief that those nations value leisure and the social side of eating and hospitality more than accumulation of assets.

The Germans however have an obssession with the symbol of their economic and financial power- the production models of BMW cars. The inhabitants of Eire, or Southern Ireland, search for the cost of funerals, the Greeks for wedding expenditure and the Italians dream of a Ferrari as an ultimate status symbol amongst their peers. The Scandinavians and Dutch are more studious, the Polish seek to travel from their homeland and in Belarus the cost of building a house is obviously important. I will let you come to your own conclusions about the ambitions, based on the items searched for in Ukraine and Bulgaria in particular. The Russians however have put lust behind them opting for finding out the cost of a flight in a MiG fighter plane.

On the same map in its Middle Eastern and North African listings the trend is for more day to day consumables. The conflict in Syria makes a loaf of bread an essential item, similarly in the conflict zones of the Horn of Africa and in other troubled regions fuels are keenly sought out. There is a stark reminder of the inequalities of wealth and resources in the region with most Googled items in the Gulf States being Lamborghini's, Play Stations and a house.

A troubling entry for Mauritania is the search for Slaves.

In the Indian sub continent the importance of a cow is emphasised giving the role of camels farther west a run for the money. Iranians are interested in kidneys and in Pakistan, weddings. The fact that trekking is most searched for in the Himalayan area suggests that tourists and general visitors are on the internet rather than locals and the same could be said for perhaps car hire in The Emirates and those interested in the sex trade in Thailand.

The generalisations in North America may be an anomaly of the search engine process but are still pretty enlightening.

You would think that Canadians, mostly second and third generation immigrants, would already be well travelled globally but there seems to be a great curiosity about passports. For the USA the focus seems to be on entreprenurial activity, to seek out a get rich invention and to really live that euphemism of the American Dream. Mexicans are keenly searching for the cosmetic surgery procedure of a tummy tuck and the Caribbean nations are understandably laid back in expressing an interest in retiring, weddings, beer and cigars although there may be trouble in paradise with the on line fascination with funerals and divorce.

In the southern part of the Americas the Brazilians obviously have a bit of time on their hands as well as being of higher levels of energy and libido. There are more practical considerations on the west coast covering the cost of living, a sun hat and cold drinks both fizzy and alcoholic.

In Australasia there is a simplicity and pragmatism in the most searched for items on the internet relating to family life, procreation and in the north island of New Zealand, a male conscience about over-population.

There is an overlapping on my reproduction of maps across the vast Asian region but with some interesting searches nonetheless. The emerging consumerist Chinese like their electronics whilst the Japanese craze watermelon. On the Korean Peninsula, the bottom part there must be a body shape obsession judging by the level of interest in rhinoplasty. Cars, maids and tattoos are popular internet trawls across Malyasia and Indonesia. Although a bit of a stereotype, perhaps the hardest working nationality on the planet, the Phillipino's just want to be able to afford to retire.

The error for misrepresentation and imbalance of such a data source must be taken with reservation and a bit of incredulity but there is a worrying underlying pattern of wealth, social, political and religious division engendered by its broad generalisations that should be taken notice of and addressed for the benefit of future generations and our co-existence on the planet earth.

(source. Fixr.com (2015) and Independent Newspaper October 2017)