Google Search: I Dreamt About...

Another quality post brought to you by Steve!


Hey everybody!  Welcome back to another entry in Across the Board's "Google Search" recurring segment, where we the bloggers act as living, breathing versions of Knowsmore from "Wreck It Ralph II."

This year, my turn to do a Google Search also falls on MLK Day, so I thought I would write about people's dreams.  I am delighted to report that when I entered "I have a dream" the results all came back as transcripts and recordings and so forth of Dr. King's famous speech.  So I tried a couple of more iterations to see what might be interesting and finally settled on "I dreamt about..." which yielded the following results:

I suppose I was hoping that dreams about a bright, shining future might be more common, but not wanting to skew the results, it seems that most people are dreaming about more prosaic and less optimistic things.  I can hardly blame folks for not feeling particularly optimistic these days.  So let's run down the list briefly.

1.)  I dreamt about you

I wonder if this is more of a thing that people say on the internet?  Or a song or movie, perhaps?  Okay, breaking the suspense, I googled again and see that I'm right.  There is a song called "I Dreamt of You" by the artist DulceSky.

2.)  I dreamt about snakes

This makes sense to me.  Snakes are a very common fear.

3.)  I dreamt about my ex

This also makes sense.  I only occasionally dream of my ex any more.  For the first year after my divorce, it was more common and very upsetting, so I could see someone googling information to get help with that.  These days I notice (usually after the fact) that if it recurs it's on special anniversaries.  Not necessarily our anniversary, but things like "this was the week she left me" and so forth.  Does that happen to anybody else?

4.)  I dreamt about my crush

And the flip side.  Presuming the primary user of the internet is kids, I remember as a teen thinking obsessively about my various crushes and even dreaming of them.  It certainly makes sense to dream about things that are occupying great swathes of your mental bandwidth.

5.)  I dreamt about a baby

One presumes this is connected to worries about young parenthood, or excitement about it.  Or maybe just worries about having sex in general.  As a part of the human condition, I understand it being fairly universal enough to land on this list.

6.)  I dreamt about spiders

Another common fear, along with snakes.

7.)  I dreamt about fish

Honestly, I don't know about this one.  Fish don't seem like something people typically fear or desire greatly.  I mean, I love a good ahi steak now and then, but I can't say it's ever occupied my dreams.  Upon further research, I see that fish can represent subconscious thoughts in dream interpretation (assuming you subscribe to such things) and that catching one can symbolize a revelation.  So maybe this is just such a common subconscious symbol that people are looking it up.

8.)  I dreamt about the devil

Well, I guess the ultimate thing to fear for religious folks is the devil.  I suppose I'd be rather concerned about what he represented if he showed up in my dreams as well.

9.)  I dreamt about having a baby

This one is kind of the same as number 5, but I guess there's a slight difference between just dreaming about a baby and dreaming about giving birth.  I suspect just seeing a baby would be a more subtle subconscious worry, and this one would be more of a five-alarm warning sign from your unconscious mind.

10.)  I dreamt about a school shooting

And, in perhaps the grimmest reminder of the world we live in, school shootings are apparently in the top ten of things people (kids, I'm guessing, mostly) dream about on this admittedly unscientific Google Search.  Which brings us back, I suppose, to the original inspiration for this post.  I don't begrudge anyone their fears, and as awful as this particular one is, I think that Dr. King would remind us that fear and worry is healthy, as long as it reminds us to take action and work toward a better world - in this instance, one where there are no more school shootings.