Blog / February 2015

“School” once again tops the list of things Twitterers are giving up for Lent, with over 5% of tweets mentioning it. This year’s list is quite stable compared to last year’s, especially in the top ten.

My hypothesis last year was that “school” was so high because Ash Wednesday coincided with spring break at many schools, but that isn’t the case this year. In the UK, A-Level exams are coming up at the beginning of March, so that may be part of it.

Another surprise for me this year, given the cold weather gripping the northeastern United States, is that weather-related tweets aren’t more popular; as a category, they move up one place from last year (to #12 from #13), though individually “snow” moves up eight places and “cold weather” moves up 79 places.

Hot Cheetos continue their run, making the top 100 for the first time.

The biggest surprise to me is #12, f***boys. I wasn’t familiar with this term before, and I’m still not totally sure what it means. Knowyourmeme.com says that it’s “used as a pejorative toward men who are perceived as oversexed or disrespectful toward women,” while also serving as a meme involving skeletons on Tumblr. It’s easily the biggest gainer this year.

This list draws from 409,000 tweets during February 14 to 21 that mention giving up something for Lent and, except as noted, excludes retweets.

Rank	Word	Count	Change from last year’s rank
1.	School	6,281	0
2.	Chocolate	4,293	0
3.	Twitter	3,876	0
4.	Alcohol	3,216	+1
5.	Social networking	3,090	+2
6.	Swearing	2,887	-2
7.	Soda	2,473	-1
8.	Sweets	2,122	0
9.	Fast food	2,056	0
10.	Coffee	1,706	+4
11.	College	1,631	+27
12.	F***boys	1,527
13.	You	1,462	+5
14.	Lent	1,348	-4
15.	Meat	1,335	-4
16.	Homework	1,208	-4
17.	Sex	1,165	-2
18.	Junk food	1,112	-5
19.	Pizza	1,067	+1
20.	Bread	1,060	-3
21.	Chips	905	-5
22.	Facebook	853	-3
23.	Boys	665	+6
24.	Candy	625	-2
25.	Netflix	610	+12
26.	Religion	602	-2
27.	Beer	596	+5
28.	Starbucks	591	-7
29.	Work	575	-2
30.	Sugar	565	+15
31.	Instagram	554	-8
32.	Ice cream	520	-4
33.	Life	489	0
34.	Winter	454	+2
35.	Smoking	441	-4
36.	Wine	435	+13
37.	Me	434	+10
38.	Cookies	430	-12
39.	Chipotle	422	+4
40.	Snapchat	408	+16
41.	Feelings	393	+27
42.	Marijuana	381	-12
43.	Shopping	374	-3
44.	Rice	357	+10
45.	My phone	351	-6
45.	Virginity	351	-21
46.	Catholicism	337	+9
47.	Food	329	-13
48.	Cheese	315	-2
49.	Stuff	307	-8
50.	McDonald's	300	-15
51.	Carbs	295	-1
52.	Snow	284	+8
53.	Desserts	276	+8
54.	French fries	257	+9
55.	People	248	+4
56.	Coke	245	+1
57.	Fried food	242	-5
58.	Red meat	237	+14
59.	Masturbation	233	-15
60.	Selfies	230	-18
61.	Hope	224	+23
61.	Sobriety	224	-14
62.	Procrastination	219	-4
63.	Complaining	216	+14
64.	Makeup	214	+2
64.	Caffeine	214	-12
65.	Booze	211	+17
65.	Negativity	211	+5
66.	Takeout	210	-2
67.	Eating out	184	+22
68.	Cake	183	+17
69.	Chick Fil A	179	+31
70.	Obama	178	-5
71.	Fizzy drinks	175	-9
72.	Porn	173	-4
73.	Diet Coke	172	0
74.	Pancakes	159	+5
75.	Breathing	158	0
76.	Classes	157	+55
77.	Sleep	156	+6
78.	Peanut butter	152	+2
79.	Cold weather	151	+79
80.	Hot Cheetos	145	+25
81.	Liquor	144	+13
82.	Tea	143	-4
83.	Dunkin Donuts	138	+27
84.	Taco Bell	137	-17
85.	Men	135	+21
86.	Sarcasm	133	-12
87.	Winning	127	+32
88.	Online shopping	126	+19
89.	Sweet tea	125	-8
90.	Caring	124	-14
91.	Pasta	123	-5
92.	Naps	122	+23
93.	Juice	117	+5
94.	Nothing	115	-25
94.	A levels	115	+37
94.	Being mean	115	+4
95.	Him	113	+22
96.	New Year's resolutions	112	+34
97.	My swag	111	-27
97.	Gluten	111	+4
98.	Exercise	110	-8
98.	Church	110	-4
99.	My boyfriend	109	+2
100.	Dairy	106	+26

Including Retweets

If we include retweets, here are the top ten things given up this year. It’s somewhat different:

Rank	Word	Count	Difference from non-retweet rank
1.	School	38,532	0
2.	College	17,615	+9
3.	F***boys	6,461	+9
4.	Chocolate	5,127	-2
5.	Twitter	5,074	-2
6.	Alcohol	4,427	-2
7.	Social networking	3,968	-2
8.	Swearing	3,534	-2
9.	Obama	3,351	+61
10.	You	2,940	+3
11.	Soda	2,820	-4
12.	Coffee	2,506	-2
13.	Sweets	2,499	-5
14.	Homework	2,456	+2
15.	Fast food	2,356	-6

Second-Wave Social Media

Has Instagram peaked?

Fast Food

Chipotle passes McDonald’s this year. Chick Fil A passes Taco Bell, and Whataburger continues its rise.

Snack Foods

Hot Cheetos are still on the move.

TV vs. Netflix

As TV declines, Netflix rises.

Categories

Rank	Category	Number of Tweets
1.	food	30,148
2.	school/work	10,819
3.	technology	9,277
4.	habits	8,057
5.	smoking/drugs/alcohol	6,230
6.	relationship	4,229
7.	irony	2,978
8.	sex	2,274
9.	health/hygiene	1,601
10.	religion	1,470
11.	entertainment	1,069
12.	weather	986
13.	generic	834
14.	shopping	685
15.	sports	410
16.	money	276
17.	politics	216
18.	clothes	174
19.	celebrity	165
20.	possessions	83

Media Coverage

The Lent Tracker received some media attention this year. In roughly chronological order:

1. What is Lent and when does it start? (Bath Chronicle)
2. Will millions of Christians give up Facebook and Twitter for Lent? (MarketWatch)
3. Top things Twitter users are 'giving up' for Lent (AZ Central. It even has a video.)
4. Chocolate or Facebook - what will you be giving up this Ash Wednesday for Lent? (Irish Central)
5. 7 Ideas to Give Up For Lent (or just because) (North DelaWHERE Happening)
6. Top 10 Things People Will Be Giving Up For Lent, According to Twitter (97.3 The Dawg)
7. What To Give Up for Lent? Twitter Reveals Top 100 Ideas of 2015 (Christianity Today)
8. Here’s What People On Twitter Say They’re Giving Up For Lent (Time)
9. What do Twitter users say they're giving up for Lent? (KWWL)
10. The Alpha and Omega of Lent: 5 FAQs on Ash Wednesday (AL.com)
11. Chocolate, smoking, fast food: What are you giving up for Lent? (New Orleans Times-Picayune)
12. Here’s What People on Twitter Say They’re Giving Up For Lent (Ryot News + Action)
13. When is Lent 2015 and what should I give up? (Lincolnshire Echo)
14. What people are giving up for Lent, as told to Twitter (Washington Post. I actually spoke to this reporter.)
15. School and chocolate top list of what Twitter users are giving up for Lent (Kansas City Star)

See the top 100 things people are giving up in 2015 for Lent on Twitter, continually updated until February 21, 2015. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2015 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions (except maybe relating to Hot Cheetos–I seriously don’t understand that one) until the end of the week.

As I write this post, with about 4,000 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “alcohol,” “chocolate,” and “social networking” lead the list. Given winter weather conditions in the eastern U.S., I expect that snow- and winter-related tweets will be popular this year.

Look for the usual post-mortem on February 21, 2015.