This Google Earth Trend Will Break Your Heart
The loved ones you miss are doing well and hanging out in 2013.
The very first time I saw this trend, it hit me right in the heart. Someone had found an old picture on Google Earth, from 2013, where they were playing outside their house with their childhood dog, who has since passed away.
I found it incredibly poignant to think that, without us even knowing, there can be pieces of the past, still out there, alive somehow - without our awareness.
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What I didn’t realise, was that this was a growing TikTok trend. People were digging up Google Earth timelines from the past 15 years, and the result is powerful and nostalgic.
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But to call it nostalgic doesn’t quite cover what you feel when you watch these videos. Seeing your parents, or your grandparents, or your dog, as alive as ever, doing a thing they so often did — like cutting the grass or fixing the car - it somehow feels present-tense. Like in some alternate universe, they’re still around, doing what they always did.
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Most of us are always saying things like “I hate social media,” and “I wish I checked my phone less often.” Why? Because, more often than not, these devices make us feel isolated. More alone.
But occasionally, an internet trend somehow brings us together. It reminds us of who we are and what’s important.
A lot of TikTok trends, the hottest person wins. Or the person with the most resources.
But when a part of internet culture really hits, nobody cares about the version that would be posted by MrBeast or Breckie Hill. What matters is the ordinary person; someone like me or you. We love the people we loved, and we miss them. But what Google Earth is showing right now is, maybe they’re still around.
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I love that the piece touches on how trends like these highlight a different side of social media, one that unites us in our shared longing, instead of making us feel isolated or inadequate. It’s the ordinary, often overlooked moments in life, the routines, the simple gestures that suddenly shimmer with meaning when we find them again. More than nostalgia, these captured images create an illusion of present tense, reminding us that those we miss might still be out there in some parallel snapshot of time. And even if it’s just a digital ghost, I love how it can be a powerful comfort, a reminder that love endures well beyond the boundaries of the analogue.