Understanding Sexual Orientation

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Doodles expose many topics to a wide variety of audiences and encourage exploration of diverse themes.

Of the 5,000 Doodles, only about half a percent have featured LGBTQ-related content.

Positive queer media content is related to positive mental health among LGBTQ youth and reduces prejudice.

Have you ever wondered about the fun graphics that show up on Google’s search engine home page? Known as “Doodles,” these illustrations and animations are often artistic interpretations of the word “Google” that are both significant artifacts of collective memory and communicatory visual aids that highlight important people and events (Britten, 2020). Beyond this, Doodles have the unique ability to cross a wide variety of audiences, potentially encouraging engagement with themes, topics, and ideas beyond their typical scope of inquiry.

Since 1998, more than 5,000 Doodles have been created, mostly by a team of in-house artists (called "Doodlers"), though they sometimes partner with guest artists (The Story and Evolution of Doodles, Google Doodles, n.d.). However, of those 5,000 Doodles, only about half a percent have featured LGBTQ-related content, with the first appearing only about 10 years ago in 2017. But what is the social significance of Doodles, and why does queer representation in Doodles matter?

The Social Significance of Google Doodles

With Google holding over 90 percent of the search market share, it is safe to say that nearly all internet users view Doodles on a regular basis (Davies, 2024). Even so, the social significance of Doodles remains largely unexplored. This is surprising because the construction of Doodles is built from the Doodle principles to “educate users by humanizing the search engine........

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