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Correlation is not causation but I challenge anyone to come up with a different cause: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?date=all&q=tiktok,unalive&hl=en

• deleted 10mo ago
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• rjh29 10mo ago
  I agree, although I was referring to asterisks like de*d and k*ll (or censoring with black bars, or using emojis) - euphemisms of course have always been part of language evolution.
  • martin-t 10mo ago
    I chose unalive because i didn't know google trends allowed searching for asterisks. Appears it does. k*ll was apparently used even before tiktok but usage increased markedly around the same time as unalive appeared. Interestingly d*ad and r*pe don't follow this pattern. I am not sure it treats asterisks correctly, nor that google trends is the right tool to research this, given people searching for the word is only a poor indicator of its usage. Sidenote, I wish all websites supported markdown properly and not a custom weird subset they found convenient.
    • deleted 10mo ago
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