I’m curious why so many “developed” or might be more accurate to say western nations have an overall decline from 2004 to today? I’m thinking of Switzerland, Wales, France, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Canada, USA as examples.

I say western might be more accurate instead of developed because South Korea and most of South America don’t seem to follow that overall downward trajectory.

Is it just illustration of countries where the internet became more ubiquitous sooner? And we were all just googling ourselves so to speak? And then as internet access became more widespread in other countries it sort of evened out? But the timeline only goes back to 2004, would have thought it needed to go back just a few years further to show that. Then again I live in the US and didn’t have internet in my house constantly until around 2005, not because it wasn’t available but because it just wasn’t part of my life when I was in my 20’s and never at home and I hadn’t grown up with it always being there.

I don’t know, might not even be thinking about the chart trends in the right way or reading too much into it. Would be curious what others think or if they noticed the similar charts for some nations.