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Archive for February, 2016

What Twitterers Are Giving up for Lent (2016 Edition)

Saturday, February 13th, 2016

The top 100 things that people on Twitter are giving up for Lent in 2016.

This year, more people are giving up chocolate than anything else; last year’s favorite, school, dropped four places to #5.

Several were topical: TOPS came in at #40, referring to Louisiana’s discontinuation of the college scholarship program of that name. Presidential candidate Donald Trump came in at #82, while “running for president” came in at #84, referring to the withdrawal of candidates Chris Christie and Carly Fiorina from the race after disappointing results in New Hampshire. “Politics” came in at #91.

Big gainers this year are “indifference,” at #51, and “being petty” at #59. The former follows Pope Francis’s Lent message from last year, which a few media outlets picked up this year.

The total number of tweets, around 200,000 (with the 60,000 non-retweets specifically mentioning giving up something serving as the basis for this analysis), dropped in half from last year’s total. I don’t know whether people are using Twitter less or if Twitter is throttling the data available in their API. Either way, much less data is available this year than last.

Rank Word Count Change from last year’s rank
1. Chocolate 2,235 +1
2. Social networking 2,115 +3
3. Alcohol 1,904 +1
4. Twitter 1,903 -1
5. School 1,565 -4
6. Swearing 1,413 0
7. Soda 1,112 0
8. Sweets 1,003 0
9. Coffee 881 +1
10. Fast food 870 -1
11. Meat 793 +3
12. Sugar 792 +18
13. Lent 654 0
14. Facebook 624 +7
15. You 607 -3
16. Bread 603 +3
17. Pizza 541 +1
18. Sex 489 -2
19. College 459 -8
20. Chips 453 0
21. Junk food 439 -4
22. Homework 410 -7
23. Beer 369 +3
24. Boys 367 -2
25. F***boys 344 +3
26. Candy 313 -3
27. Work 301 +2
28. Starbucks 291 -1
29. Life 283 +4
30. Religion 278 -5
31. Ice cream 267 +1
32. Netflix 255 -8
33. Instagram 243 -2
34. Snapchat 239 +6
35. Smoking 225 0
36. Cheese 221 +13
37. Wine 220 -1
38. Cookies 218 0
39. Marijuana 193 +3
40. TOPS 179  
41. Rice 177 +3
42. Food 170 +6
43. Stuff 161 +7
44. French fries 160 +12
45. Makeup 157 +21
46. Catholicism 156 +1
46. Shopping 156 -3
47. Carbs 150 +5
48. Fried food 137 +11
48. People 137 +9
49. Caffeine 133 +18
50. Red meat 127 +10
50. Feelings 127 -9
51. Desserts 121 +4
51. Indifference 121 +124
51. My phone 121 -6
52. McDonald’s 118 -1
53. Hope 114 +10
53. Negativity 114 +15
54. Masturbation 110 +7
55. Procrastination 109 +9
56. Complaining 108 +9
57. Booze 107 +10
58. Virginity 104 -12
59. Sobriety 103 +5
59. Being petty 103 +104
60. Coke 102 -2
61. Liquor 97 +22
61. Hot Cheetos 97 +21
61. Online shopping 97 +29
61. Fizzy drinks 97 +12
62. Breathing 96 +15
63. Caring 91 +29
64. Pasta 90 +29
64. Dairy 90 +38
65. Takeout 89 +3
66. Diet coke 86 +9
67. Chick Fil A 84 +4
68. Chipotle 82 -29
68. Sleep 82 +11
69. Cake 79 +1
69. Eating out 79 0
70. Pancakes 78 +6
70. Porn 78 +4
71. Men 77 +16
72. Stress 75 +37
73. Sarcasm 71 +15
74. Taco Bell 70 +12
74. Him 70 +24
75. Gluten 68 +25
75. Peanut butter 68 +5
76. Juice 67 +19
77. My attitude 66 +64
77. Cruelty 66  
77. Tea 66 +7
78. New Year’s resolutions 64 +20
79. Christianity 63 +29
80. Church 62 +21
81. Sixth form 61 +88
82. TV 60 +24
82. Donald Trump 60  
83. Pork 58 +42
83. A levels 58 +14
84. Running for president 57  
84. Exercise 57 +16
85. Lying 55 +41
86. Everything 52 +24
86. Being mean 52 +11
86. Sweet tea 52 +5
87. Studying 51 +24
88. Chicken 50 +16
89. Naps 49 +5
89. Dunkin Donuts 49 -4
89. Potatoes 49 +28
89. God 49 +29
90. My job 48 +32
91. Nothing 46 +5
91. Politics 46 +100
92. Tinder 44 +41
93. Laziness 42 +35
94. Being single 41 +20
94. Being nice 41 +27
94. Hoes 41 +31
95. Girls 40 +10
95. Benefits 40  
96. Math 39 +10
96. Selfies 39 -34
96. Losing 39 +35
97. Bacon 38 +18
97. My boyfriend 38 +4
97. Dieting 38 +53
97. Dating 38 +60
98. Elevators 37 +32
98. Classes 37 -20
98. Buying makeup 37 +76
98. Going to school 37 +21
98. Donuts 37 +8
98. Plastic 37 +85
99. Jesus 36 +32
99. Boba 36 +28
99. Her 36 +19
99. Football 36 +83
99. Trying 36 +54
99. Snacking 36 +11
99. My feelings 36 +45
100. Tacos 35 +65
100. Lint 35 +24
100. Guys 35 +29

Social Media

Snapchat passes Instagram for the first time this year. WhatsApp continues to rank surprisingly low given its popularity.

Fast Food

Chipotle’s well-publicized food-safety woes reversed its trajectory this year.

Chipotle falls below McDonald's after passing them last year.

Snack Food

Hot Cheetos show no signs of slowing down.

Hot Cheetos continues to outpace other snack foods.

Boba

Boba, or bubble tea, is the new beverage of choice, apparently.

Boba has been steadily increasing compared to regular tea.

Categories

Rank Category Number of Tweets
1. food 15,459
2. technology 5,021
3. habits 4,299
4. smoking/drugs/alcohol 3,513
5. school/work 3,235
6. relationship 1,974
7. irony 1,812
8. health/hygiene 908
9. sex 902
10. religion 738
11. generic 577
12. entertainment 462
13. politics 374
14. relationships 344
15. shopping 341
16. money 147
17. sports 125
18. celebrity 78
19. possessions 70
20. weather 57
21. clothes 49

Media Coverage

The Lent Tracker received some media attention this year:

  1. Naples Daily News
  2. Times Union
  3. Independent
  4. Spokesman-Review
  5. Kansas City Star
  6. Fox 8 Cleveland
  7. Irish Central
  8. Newstalk
  9. Knoxville News Sentinel
  10. Des Moines Register

Track in Real Time What People Are Giving Up for Lent in 2016

Monday, February 8th, 2016

See the top 100 things people are giving up in 2016 for Lent on Twitter, continually updated until February 13, 2016. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2016 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2016 yet.

As I write this post, with about 2,000 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “chocolate,” “alcohol,” and “social networking” lead the list. Currently, “cruelty” is #6, reflecting a campaign by PETA UK asking Christians to go vegan for Lent. With the New Hampshire primaries on Tuesday and several U.S. presidential candidates likely to withdraw from the race, I’m expecting jokes about how the candidates are giving up their presidential aspirations for Lent.

Look for the usual post-mortem on February 13, 2016.