This year, “School” topped the list of things Twitterers are giving up for Lent, up 44 places from last year. Remaining in the top ten from last year are Swearing, Alcohol, Soda, Social Networking, and Fast Food. Chocolate, Twitter, Sweets, and Lent round out the new additions to the top ten.
I don’t have a great explanation for why School is #1 this year–it could be that Ash Wednesday is later this year, so spring break is closer (for some it even starts today). It’s also possible that Twitter’s audience is skewing younger than it used to, or that younger Twitter users are more likely to tweet about Lent.
Timely topics this year are Boosie, referring to rapper Lil Boosie, who was released from prison this week (people joked that the prison was giving him up for Lent); and Electricity, referring to a widespread power outage in South Africa.
This list draws from 646,000 tweets during March 2 to 8 that mention giving up something for Lent and excludes retweets.
| Rank | Word | Count | Change from last year’s rank |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | School | 11,757 | +44 |
| 2. | Chocolate | 9,515 | +15 |
| 3. | 8,642 | +8 | |
| 4. | Swearing | 7,132 | -2 |
| 5. | Alcohol | 6,325 | 0 |
| 6. | Soda | 5,446 | -3 |
| 7. | Social networking | 4,197 | -3 |
| 8. | Sweets | 4,188 | +8 |
| 9. | Fast food | 4,088 | 0 |
| 10. | Lent | 2,842 | +118 |
| 11. | Meat | 2,790 | +26 |
| 12. | Homework | 2,760 | +61 |
| 13. | Junk food | 2,723 | +8 |
| 14. | Coffee | 2,678 | +123 |
| 15. | Sex | 2,392 | +112 |
| 16. | Chips | 2,129 | -10 |
| 17. | Bread | 2,020 | +114 |
| 18. | You | 2,016 | +21 |
| 19. | 1,926 | 0 | |
| 20. | Pizza | 1,628 | +122 |
| 21. | Starbucks | 1,566 | +120 |
| 22. | Candy | 1,412 | +87 |
| 23. | 1,212 | -13 | |
| 24. | Religion | 1,147 | +104 |
| 25. | Virginity | 1,143 | -18 |
| 26. | Cookies | 1,053 | -14 |
| 27. | Work | 1,031 | +4 |
| 28. | Ice cream | 1,025 | +27 |
| 29. | Boys | 1,021 | +99 |
| 30. | Marijuana | 1,018 | -22 |
| 31. | Smoking | 994 | -9 |
| 32. | Beer | 939 | +104 |
| 33. | Life | 933 | -8 |
| 34. | Food | 930 | +27 |
| 35. | McDonalds | 926 | +20 |
| 36. | Winter | 853 | |
| 37. | Netflix | 851 | -7 |
| 38. | College | 819 | +16 |
| 39. | My phone | 777 | +6 |
| 40. | Shopping | 748 | +103 |
| 41. | Stuff | 733 | +100 |
| 42. | Selfies | 731 | +1 |
| 43. | Chipotle | 726 | +100 |
| 44. | Masturbation | 725 | -30 |
| 45. | Sugar | 682 | +82 |
| 46. | Cheese | 670 | +94 |
| 47. | Me | 656 | +87 |
| 48. | Sobriety | 655 | -17 |
| 49. | Wine | 652 | +94 |
| 50. | Carbs | 648 | +81 |
| 51. | Boosie | 581 | |
| 52. | Fried food | 574 | -23 |
| 53. | Caffeine | 563 | +70 |
| 54. | Rice | 562 | +86 |
| 55. | Catholicism | 561 | -28 |
| 56. | Snapchat | 543 | +11 |
| 57. | Coke | 541 | -22 |
| 58. | Procrastination | 517 | -18 |
| 59. | People | 516 | +54 |
| 60. | Snow | 506 | |
| 61. | Desserts | 486 | -37 |
| 62. | Fizzy drinks | 480 | +81 |
| 63. | French fries | 475 | -29 |
| 64. | Takeout | 464 | -49 |
| 65. | Obama | 452 | +74 |
| 66. | Makeup | 451 | -25 |
| 67. | Taco Bell | 434 | +39 |
| 68. | Feelings | 434 | -32 |
| 68. | Porn | 430 | |
| 69. | Nothing | 427 | +74 |
| 70. | My swag | 420 | -47 |
| 71. | Negativity | 417 | +28 |
| 72. | Red meat | 396 | +59 |
| 73. | Diet Coke | 390 | +69 |
| 74. | Sarcasm | 380 | |
| 75. | Breathing | 369 | |
| 76. | Caring | 357 | +66 |
| 77. | Complaining | 354 | |
| 78. | Tea | 352 | +64 |
| 79. | Pancakes | 340 | +63 |
| 80. | Peanut butter | 336 | |
| 81. | Sweet tea | 335 | |
| 82. | Booze | 325 | +61 |
| 83. | Sleep | 320 | +33 |
| 84. | Hope | 316 | +46 |
| 85. | Cake | 313 | -13 |
| 86. | Pasta | 303 | +57 |
| 87. | TV | 302 | +30 |
| 88. | Texting | 297 | +52 |
| 89. | Eating out | 275 | -29 |
| 90. | Exercise | 274 | -47 |
| 91. | Pants | 270 | +5 |
| 92. | Electricity | 268 | +41 |
| 93. | The gym | 258 | +16 |
| 94. | Liquor | 245 | |
| 95. | Church | 243 | -46 |
| 96. | Tinder | 237 | +35 |
| 97. | Tumblr | 236 | +46 |
| 98. | Math | 236 | +20 |
| 98. | Juice | 232 | +35 |
| 99. | Being mean | 230 | |
| 100. | Chick Fil A | 228 | -38 |
Categories
| Rank | Category | Number of Tweets |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | food | 62,453 |
| 2. | school/work | 18,148 |
| 3. | technology | 17,615 |
| 4. | habits | 16,616 |
| 5. | smoking/drugs/alcohol | 12,665 |
| 6. | irony | 7,319 |
| 7. | relationship | 6,563 |
| 8. | sex | 5,483 |
| 9. | health/hygiene | 3,476 |
| 10. | religion | 2,784 |
| 11. | generic | 2,504 |
| 12. | entertainment | 1,959 |
| 13. | weather | 1,496 |
| 14. | shopping | 1,183 |
| 15. | celebrity | 961 |
| 16. | sports | 780 |
| 17. | politics | 547 |
| 18. | clothes | 540 |
| 19. | money | 492 |
| 20. | habit | 393 |
| 21. | possessions | 217 |
| 22. | clothing | 62 |
Historical Trends
This year I added a new Historical Lent Tracker that you can use to investigate Lenten trends on your own over the past six years.
Here are some of my favorite graphs:
Second-Wave Social Media
Tumblr peaked in 2011, and WhatsApp, which Facebook recently paid $19 billion for, doesn’t register highly.
Fast Food Restaurants
Chipotle is much higher on the list than I expected–is that because people love it or because they hate it?
One Direction vs. Justin Bieber
Snack Foods
Congratulations, Hot Cheetos, on being the snack the most people want to give up.
Media Coverage
The Lent Tracker got some media attention this year. In roughly chronological order:
- What To Give Up for Lent 2014? Twitter Reveals Top 100 Choices (Christianity Today)
- Twitter Lent Tracker Reveals Top 100 Things People (Say They) Are Giving Up (Huffington Post)
- 100 Things Christians Are Giving Up for Lent This Year (The Blaze)
- Forty Days Without (Inlander)
- What Are You Giving up for Lent: Question of the Day (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
- What Are You Giving Up for Lent? (Lancaster Online)
- Social Networks Shows Popularity of Lenten Sacrifices (Pasadena Star-News)
- Why You Shouldn’t Tweet About What You’re Giving Up for Lent (New Republic)
- The 25 Most Popular Things to Give Up for Lent Online (Washington Post)
- Giving Up Something For Lent? Shhh. (Slate)
- More Giving up Twitter and Facebook for Lent (WSJ MarketWatch)
Finally, this Wall Street Journal article doesn’t talk about the Lent tracker, but it discusses the fraught phenomenon of Ash Wednesday selfies: Selfies Bring Ashtags to Lent. (This article may or may not be behind a paywall for you.)