In the wake of yesterday’s shock Brexit poll result, in which the UK opted to break away from the EU, Britons are asking themselves the big questions, like how world markets will react, how much further the pound will fall and, erm, what even is the EU in the first place?
Overnight, Google Trends released a list of the top questions that the UK is asking about the EU since the Brexit result was officially announced. Not surprisingly, a lot of people are concerned, with searches for ‘what happens if we leave?’ spiking 250%.
+250% spike in “what happens if we leave the EU” in the past hourhttps://t.co/9b1d6Bsx6D
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
On a slightly more worrying note, Google Trends also revealed that, eight hours after the polls closed, ‘What is the EU?’ was the second-most popular Brexit question that UK users were asking.
“What is the EU?” is the second top UK question on the EU since the #EURefResults were officially announced pic.twitter.com/1q4VAX3qcm
— GoogleTrends (@GoogleTrends) June 24, 2016
A simple and straightforward question like that is naturally more likely to occur in Google trends than a complex multi-part one. Still, of the 17.41 million people who voted to leave, it can only be hoped that some took the time to bone up on the EU beforehand … right?
At this point, many UK media outlets are running on pure schadenfreude, and are tracking down ‘leave’ supporters who have since come to regret their decision, like the below voter, who says she now wishes she’d gone for ‘remain’:
One Manchester ‘leave’ voter, identified as Adam, told the BBC: “I didn’t think that was going to happen. My vote – I didn’t think [it] was going to matter too much because I thought we were just going to remain.”
Fortunately for us all, the internet will still be here to answer our big questions long after the dust from Brexit settles:
Source: Washington Post.
Photo: Mary Turner / Getty.
