( CNN ) -- If you ca n't recall everything you loved and hated about 2012 , Facebook , Twitter and Google all just released their year-in-review reports . And all three reflect what many of us experienced firsthand : . Thousands of strangers gathering to watch a rover land on Mars and a man fall from space . A hurricane slamming the East Coast while the world watched tragedy strike and heroes emerge . Social media , combined with the ability to search and surface information almost instantly , repeatedly brought Internet users together to huddle around the virtual campfire , sharing their stories through image , text and sound . 'Gangnam Style ' to 'Kony 2012 : ' This year 's top viral videos . Whitney Houston 's accidental drowning death was Google 's top search trend , generated more than 10 million tweets and was the third-biggest event on Facebook in 2012 . Hurricane Sandy generated more than 20 million tweets , was the fourth biggest event on Facebook and was the top trending event of 2012 on Google . Politics and political gaffes ( remember Big Bird ? ) were top news trends on Google . Google defines trends as those searches with the highest amount of traffic over a sustained period in 2012 when compared to 2011 . Although social media and search engines serve different purposes , both ultimately reveal what the world is talking about . More than two-thirds of American adults online now use social media regularly , according to a recent study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project . More women than men are social media users , which could explain how `` Fifty Shades of Grey '' wound up as the fourth most-read book of the year on Facebook . More than 90 % of adults aged 18-29 are on social media , so it should n't surprise anyone that the `` Hunger Games '' series accounted for the top three most-read books and the No . 1 movie among members of Facebook . Trends on Twitter seemed to reflect a more diverse demographic . Its most popular tweets came from President Barack Obama celebrating `` Four More Years , '' Justin Bieber mourning the loss of a young cancer patient and frustrated NFL player TJ Lang ranting about the league 's replacement refs . Overall trends in the U.S. seemed to reflect a natural curiosity about the new , with top `` What Is '' trends being SOPA , KONY , Yolo and `` What is Instagram ? '' For more on the trends : . Twitter : 2012 Year on Twitter . Google : Google Zeitgeist 2012 . Facebook : 2012 Year in Review .
Facebook , Twitter and YouTube all just released their best - in - show lists . Top trends : Superstorm Sandy , Whitney Houston . More than two - thirds of American adults who are online now use social media regularly .