{"id":1417,"date":"2018-02-17T22:22:26","date_gmt":"2018-02-18T02:22:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.openbible.info\/blog\/?p=1417"},"modified":"2018-02-17T22:22:26","modified_gmt":"2018-02-18T02:22:26","slug":"what-twitterers-are-giving-up-for-lent-2018-edition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.openbible.info\/blog\/2018\/02\/what-twitterers-are-giving-up-for-lent-2018-edition\/","title":{"rendered":"What Twitterers Are Giving up for Lent (2018 Edition)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Social<\/a><\/p>\n

This year social networking topped the list, followed by Twitter, alcohol, chocolate, and swearing. It was a fairly typical year, with the top five the same as last year (though in a different order)–except for swearing, which came in at #6 last year, behind chips. (Chips had received a boost last year from Theresa May’s vow to give them up; this year they returned to closer to their usual spot<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

This year, 29,609 tweets (excluding retweets) specifically mention giving up something, down substantially from last year’s 73,334. In all, this year the analysis covers 427,810 tweets, down from 694,244 last year.<\/p>\n

Relationships<\/h3>\n

As expected with Valentine’s Day falling on Ash Wednesday this year, relationship-related tweets increased:<\/p>\n

\"Men<\/a><\/p>\n

Plastic<\/h3>\n

Plastic also jumped substantially this year, boosted by the Church of England’s suggestion that followers give up various forms of plastic<\/a> for Lent.<\/p>\n

\"Plastic<\/a><\/p>\n

Fortnite<\/h3>\n

New to the list this year is Fortnite<\/a>, a Hunger Games-style video game:<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s all they talk about,\u201d said Glen Irvin, a teacher coach at a high school in Sauk Rapids, Minn., of \u201cFortnite\u201d-playing students. \u201cThe only other game I\u2019ve ever heard kids get this passionate about is \u2018Minecraft.\u2019\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Fortnite<\/a><\/p>\n

Juuling<\/h3>\n

Also new this year is juuling<\/a>, a slick and covert way to vape:<\/p>\n

Resembling a flash drive, Juul conveys a sense of industry \u2014 you\u2019re Juuling into your MacBook Air while you are cramming for your test on Theodore Dreiser and thinking about trigonometry \u2014 and it is so easy to conceal that, as one mother explained to me, she failed to notice that her daughter was vaping in the back seat of the car as she was driving.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Giving up juuling this year was nearly half as popular as giving up smoking:<\/p>\n

\"Vaping<\/a><\/p>\n

Shootings<\/h3>\n

Two newcomers to the list this year are #30, guns, and #88, mass shootings. These tweets reflected a shooting at a Florida high school<\/a> on Ash Wednesday.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

Donald Trump<\/h3>\n

Donald Trump fell this year from #22 to #67, sandwiched between hope and procrastination.<\/p>\n

\"Percentagewise,<\/a><\/p>\n

Tide Pods<\/h3>\n

Finishing just out of the top 100 this year are Tide Pods, which people keep eating for some reason<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Hopefully<\/a><\/p>\n

Fast Food<\/h3>\n

Chick-fil-A surged to near-parity with McDonald’s, while Chipotle this week decided to deal with its Taco Bell parity by hiring Taco Bell’s former CEO<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Meanwhile,<\/a><\/p>\n

Snack Food<\/h3>\n

Have Hot Cheetos finally plateaued?<\/p>\n

\"Hot<\/a><\/p>\n

Emojis<\/h3>\n

This year 4,667 tweets (16%) contained at least one emoji, down from 19% last year. The most-popular emojis were: 😂 😭 ♀ 😩 🙃 🙏 ✌ 😅 🙄 ♂.\t<\/p>\n

Retweets<\/h3>\n

Here’s the most-retweeted Lent post this year, with over 71,000 retweets. I’m not totally sure why. (All the rest of the data on this page excludes retweets.)<\/p>\n