What would the internet be without some sort of challenge? In the past we’ve seen the cinnamon challenge, the tide pod challenge and the Harlem Shake. In 2018, though, it was a Drake song that sparked the challenge of the year: the #InMyFeelings challenge.
Instagram named it the top dance movement of 2018.
Instagram users were also feeling the love. The top face filter used in stories was the was the “heart eyes” filter and 14 billion heart emojis were used in Instagram comments in 2018.
The Walmart yodelling kid, Mason Ramsey, had one of the top videos on YouTube in 2018. That fame landed him on the Ellen show and he even came to Calgary to perform during Stampede.
“If you add up all the videos associated with the Walmart kid, it’s over 300 million,” YouTube trends expert Aaron Brindle said. “The kid is amazing.”
Google says the top-searched news stories of the year were the royal wedding, cannabis and the Canada Post strike.
“The biggest surge in interest we saw this year around cannabis was actually how to invest in companies that are starting this new industry in Canada,” Google trends expert Nicole Belle said. “So, a huge amount of interest from Canadians on specific stocks to buy and trying to get a better understanding of this new market.”
On Twitter, #cdnpoli was the second most mentioned hashtag in 2018, which is expected to continue in 2019 with a federal election on the way.
The most mentioned Twitter account in Canada goes to K-pop group BTS, beating out U.S. President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
Also on Twitter, the top talkers for Calgary were the Calgary 2026 plebiscite, the Stampeders winning the Grey Cup and a campaign by entrepreneur Brett Wilson raising money for the Boys & Girls Club of Calgary.
On Facebook, for the second year in a row, International Women’s Day on March 8 was the #1 most talked about moment of the year.
The World Cup was also big on Facebook, with more than 383 million soccer fans from around the world taking to Facebook to cheer on their favourite teams through 2.3 billion posts, comments, reactions and shares.