Mind and health: This Valentine’s Day, almost every country has its own GIF to say “I love you”

Wednesday 14 February 2018

This Valentine’s Day, almost every country has its own GIF to say “I love you”

It turns out love is not a universal language. In the time leading up to Valentine’s Day (Feb. 14), the world expressed its love and angst in—often dramatically—different from country to country.

Quartz analyzed data provided by Tenor, a search engine for GIFs, to identify how people in 45 countries were using the animated images to express their emotions. Valentine’s Day searches were dominated by—as you might expect—the quest for love. But other voices were heard as well, including those searching for “Galentines” (the holiday to celebrate female friendships on Feb. 13), “single,” “forever alone,” “missyou, “eyeroll,” and “50 shades”—all of which saw a spike in activity.

Tenor collected information on 6.1 billion GIF searches and shares from 45 countries between Oct. 2017 and Jan. 2018, using data gathered from Whatsapp and Tenor GIF Keyboard application GIF searches and shares. (Tenor customizes search results based on popularity and language in a given region.)

Here are a sample of some of the most-searched and -shared GIFs for various emotions, by country, according to Tenor: