The beginning of the year is the time when people want a clean slate, putting behind them some of the problematic behaviors they’ve indulged in and resolving to do better. In other words, making resolutions.
But what are New Jerseyans vowing to quit? A recent survey aimed to find out; Galllus Detox Centers analyzed Google searches and found that Americans want to quit things as varied as alcohol to sugar to biting their nails. Nationally, biting nails trailed only alcohol, tobacco, and pornography for searches on how to quit.
The national top ten of vices people want to quit is as follows:
Other categories just outside the top ten include vaping, gaming, shopping, and stimulants.
They broke the results down by state and found the most searched vice to quit in New Jersey was: gambling! I guess it makes sense since New Jersey is one of the oldest legal betting markets in the country, so we probably have more gamblers than most states. Two other states had gambling as the top vice: Nevada (no surprise) and Illinois.
As for the specific search terms in each category, every one had the terms “quit” or “stop.” Stop-related terms led the list for alcohol, nail biting, pornography, cannabis, sugar, gambling, and junk food (for example, “how to stop watching porn”). People trying to stop smoking and caffeine preferred the word “quit” (for example, “how to quit smoking”).
In case you’re wondering (as I was) which states had “stop watching porn” as the most searched for term, they are California, Georgia, Maryland, and Utah.
Opinions expressed in the post above are those of New Jersey 101.5 talk show host Bill Doyle only.
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