The JustAnswer November Curiosity Report

Etiquette, Home Security, Mental Health and Covid — But Not Vaccines — Among November’s Top Trending Question Topics on JustAnswer 

As we start to close out 2022 and head into the holiday season, people increasingly turned to JustAnswer for professional advice on everything from etiquette (i.e., managing difficult situations at family gatherings) to home security and HVAC systems in November. And as usual, we received the usual sprinkling of slightly off-the-wall questions as well.  

November Trending Topics by Question Volume 

Five topics stood out in November in terms of increased question volume either month over month or trending for the year: 

• Home Improvement (HVAC + appliance repair) – up 26% over October 
  • Cooler winter weather brings the usual spike in queries about pilot lights and heating systems, while holiday entertaining means a greater workload for your dishwasher, washing machines and dryers, so it’s not a big surprise to find out JustAnswer home improvement and appliance repair specialists were particularly busy last month. 
• Etiquette – up 24% over October 
  • After a year of social distancing and skipped holiday parties, 2021 has people looking to celebrate again with family dinners and “friendsgiving” gatherings — and people are increasingly looking for direction on how to navigate challenging situations, especially since they may be a bit rusty after a year off from in-person socializing. Questions such as “is a bottle of wine enough to bring to a holiday dinner, or should I also bring a homemade pie?” or “should we expect another couple we invited to a restaurant Thanksgiving dinner to pay their tab, or should we expect to treat for the meal?” are flooding our site and continuing into December. 
• Covid — but not Vaccine-related questions – up 24% over October
  • Surprisingly, while Covid questions in general continued to spike last month, we not only did not see the expected rise in questions specifically about vaccines and booster shots, we actually saw a 14% decrease in vaccine questions. Perhaps there is so much publicly available information about the vaccines at this point, people did not feel the need to turn to other sources. 
• Home Security – up 21% over October 
  • High profile news stories about “smash and grab” burglaries at luxury retail stores, along with the usual concern over porch pirates stealing holiday deliveries could be fueling this spike, but we are certainly seeing a rise in queries about residential alarm systems and cameras (e.g., “How do I connect my new Ring system to WiFi?”)  in November. 
• Mental Health – up 11% since last month 
  • Similar to the rise in etiquette questions, after a year of avoiding people and social interaction, November’s Thanksgiving celebrations and the December holiday functions on the horizon could be fueling anxiety about relationships and friend and family dynamics. Add in the typical challenges of balancing (often remote) work with holiday schedules, and JustAnswer’s professional therapists, counselors and other mental health professionals are seeing more questions than ever. 

They Asked What? 

Of course, JustAnswer also received the usual batch of shall we say unusual or slightly random queries last month. Here are a few: 

• I had a strange dream that a deceased uncle who was very rich in real life had a giant round ball of soft bread delivered to me. It was the size of a large workout ball. 3 ft diameter. It was filled with some sauce. What does that mean? 
• Is it true that Waffle Houses are used as indicators of weather severity because they basically never close? 
• What are the chances of getting a boyfriend delivered to my home with modern technology since Covid just rained on my parade and I’m pretty sure I’m going to wind up a lonely cat lady? 
• I don’t laugh at the same things other people laugh at. Could this be related to a disease like depression or schizophrenia? 
• Who is going to win the 2024 presidential election?