Blog / Lent

This year social networking topped the list, as it did last year, followed by alcohol, Twitter, chocolate, and, ironically, Lent. Swearing fell to #7 this year from #5 last year. With the absence of a major political or social event, 2019 was a fairly typical year for what people said they would give up for Lent.

This year, 44,291 tweets (excluding retweets) specifically mentioned giving up something, up from last year’s 29,609. In all, this year’s analysis covers 491,069 tweets, up from 427,810 last year.

Plastic

Giving up plastic has become increasingly popular in the past two years. In all, 464 tweets this year mentioned plastic of some sort, which would almost bring it into the top ten.

Brexit

The one major political event occurring over Ash Wednesday involved the ongoing Brexit debate. When British Prime Minister Theresa May accepted a suggestion that British lawmakers give up the EU for Lent, it led others to tweet the opposite:

Depression and Anxiety

It was a banner year for those who said they were giving up both:

Winter

Tweets about cold weather were up this year, as they are cyclically depending on the severity of winter weather:

Gossip

Pope Francis this year suggested giving up gossip for Lent, leading to an increase in the number of tweets about it:

Relationships

Even though last year Ash Wednesday fell on Valentine’s Day, this year the percentage of people saying they were going to give up a significant other rose:

Fast Food

Chick-fil-A finally surpassed McDonald’s this year, and Chipotle continues its decline:

Other Updates from Last Year

Hot Cheetos finally declined. Smoking and Juuling both rose. Tide Pods look to be a one-year phenomenon, along with Fortnite. Snapchat dropped off a cliff.

Top 100 Things Twitterers Gave Up for Lent in 2019

1.	Social networking	1,529	0
2.	Alcohol	1,498	+1
3.	Twitter	1,409	-1
4.	Chocolate	818	0
5.	Lent	770	+6
6.	Meat	684	0
7.	Swearing	606	-2
8.	Coffee	563	+1
9.	Soda	561	-1
10.	Sex	511	+3
11.	Fast food	473	-1
12.	Sweets	460	-5
13.	School	414	+2
14.	Men	374	+6
15.	Work	367	+11
16.	College	346	+9
17.	Religion	346	+15
18.	Bread	336	-4
19.	You	327	0
20.	Plastic	312	0
21.	Sugar	294	0
22.	Catholicism	290	+15
23.	Giving up things	289	+10
24.	Beer	274	-6
25.	Chips	269	-9
26.	Life	258	+3
27.	Facebook	227	-15
28.	Marijuana	224	+3
29.	Brexit	212	+47
30.	Boys	204	-8
31.	Instagram	195	-4
32.	Virginity	187	+28
33.	Smoking	175	+7
34.	Candy	161	-11
35.	Starbucks	144	-1
36.	Junk food	138	-3
37.	Hope	128	+22
38.	Homework	128	+8
39.	Rice	127	+8
40.	Breathing	125	+32
41.	Cheese	122	-5
42.	Donald Trump	122	+18
43.	Red meat	121	-8
44.	Lying	118	0
45.	Food	113	+24
46.	Wine	111	-5
47.	Carbs	111	-6
48.	Winter	110	+48
49.	Fried food	109	+1
50.	Masturbation	109	+6
51.	Gossip	108	+41
52.	Depression	105	+26
53.	Anxiety	103	+30
54.	Ice cream	103	-4
55.	My job	103	+26
56.	Him	98	+10
57.	Cookies	98	-5
58.	Pizza	96	-20
59.	People	94	-5
60.	Dairy	94	-15
61.	Booze	92	-13
62.	Procrastination	91	-3
63.	Single use plastic	84	-10
64.	Eating out	84	0
65.	Liquor	81	-7
66.	Juuling	80	-1
67.	Boba	79	+4
68.	Christianity	76	+15
69.	Takeout	75	-10
70.	Caffeine	75	-15
71.	Shopping	74	-17
72.	Negativity	73	-46
73.	My will to live	69	-1
74.	Sobriety	68	-16
75.	Online shopping	66	-1
76.	Bills	64	+19
77.	French fries	64	-16
78.	Lint	63	+6
79.	Chick Fil A	61	-16
80.	Complaining	61	-29
81.	Sleep	61	-11
82.	Desserts	60	-15
83.	Church	60	-5
84.	Coke	59	-16
85.	Pussy	59	-6
86.	Hot Cheetos	56	-25
87.	Netflix	55	-25
88.	God	54	-3
89.	Porn	53	-24
90.	Snapchat	50	-73
91.	Stress	50	-3
92.	Oxygen	50	+4
93.	Spending	50	-3
94.	Pancakes	46	-21
95.	Crying	46	-1
96.	Diet coke	46	-19
97.	Juice	45	-15
98.	Chicken	44	-19
99.	Cheating	43	-19
100.	F***boys	43	-43

Top Categories

This year, the top celebrity was BTS, a Korean boy band / all-consuming lifestyle.

1.	food	8,004
2.	technology	3,688
3.	habits	2,963
4.	smoking/drugs/alcohol	2,820
5.	irony	2,097
6.	relationship	1,800
7.	school/work	1,490
8.	sex	1,164
9.	religion	1,016
10.	politics	440
11.	generic	427
12.	money	353
13.	health/hygiene	348
14.	entertainment	224
15.	shopping	182
16.	weather	171
17.	sports	165
18.	possessions	54
19.	celebrity	24
20.	clothes	16

Media Coverage

The Lent Tracker received some media attention this year:

• Christianity Today
• Minneapolis Star Tribune (this reporter actually interviewed me)
• Relevant Magazine
• Christian Post
• The Mercury News
• ABC6 Philadelphia, ABC7 Chicago, and Fox 8 New Orleans (slideshows)

See the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent in 2019 on Twitter, continually updated until March 9, 2019. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2019 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2019 yet.

As I write this post, with about 1,500 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “social networking,” “alcohol,” and “twitter” lead the list. If I had to guess, with an unusually cold February across much of the U.S., weather might feature more prominently this year than last year, when Ash Wednesday coincided with Valentine’s Day.

Look for the usual post-mortem on March 10, 2019.

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.)

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.

Relationships

As expected with Valentine’s Day falling on Ash Wednesday this year, relationship-related tweets increased:

Plastic

Plastic also jumped substantially this year, boosted by the Church of England’s suggestion that followers give up various forms of plastic for Lent.

Fortnite

New to the list this year is Fortnite, a Hunger Games-style video game:

“It’s all they talk about,” said Glen Irvin, a teacher coach at a high school in Sauk Rapids, Minn., of “Fortnite”-playing students. “The only other game I’ve ever heard kids get this passionate about is ‘Minecraft.’”

Juuling

Also new this year is juuling, a slick and covert way to vape:

Resembling a flash drive, Juul conveys a sense of industry — you’re Juuling into your MacBook Air while you are cramming for your test on Theodore Dreiser and thinking about trigonometry — 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.

Giving up juuling this year was nearly half as popular as giving up smoking:

Shootings

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

Donald Trump

Donald Trump fell this year from #22 to #67, sandwiched between hope and procrastination.

Tide Pods

Finishing just out of the top 100 this year are Tide Pods, which people keep eating for some reason.

Fast Food

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.

Snack Food

Have Hot Cheetos finally plateaued?

Emojis

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

Retweets

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.)

for lent im just giving up

— annie (@annien826) February 13, 2018

Top 100 Things Twitterers Gave Up for Lent in 2018

Rank	Word	Count	Change from last year’s rank
1.	Social networking	1,329	+1
2.	Twitter	1,215	+2
3.	Alcohol	1,105	-2
4.	Chocolate	1,035	-1
5.	Swearing	549	+1
6.	Meat	531	+6
7.	Sweets	499	+3
8.	Soda	441	0
9.	Coffee	387	+2
10.	Fast food	380	-1
11.	Lent	373	+2
12.	Facebook	342	+9
13.	Sex	315	+6
14.	Bread	267	+2
15.	School	256	-8
16.	Chips	222	-11
17.	Snapchat	216	+34
18.	Beer	193	-3
19.	You	189	+1
20.	Men	189	+35
21.	Plastic	188	+122
22.	Sugar	185	-5
23.	Boys	165	+2
24.	Candy	162	+7
25.	Valentine's Day	157	+130
26.	Work	145	-2
27.	College	145	-13
28.	Negativity	144	+32
29.	Instagram	143	+13
30.	Guns	141	+126
31.	Life	139	-13
32.	Marijuana	132	+1
33.	Junk food	130	-6
34.	Religion	130	-8
35.	Giving up things	112
36.	Starbucks	111	-2
37.	Red meat	108	+12
38.	Cheese	106	-6
39.	Catholicism	105	-4
40.	Pizza	104	-11
41.	Smoking	100	-11
42.	Love	100	+96
43.	Wine	93	-3
44.	Carbs	91	0
45.	Me	89	-7
46.	Fortnite	87
47.	Lying	84	+25
48.	Dairy	81	+13
49.	Homework	78	-21
50.	Rice	77	-7
51.	Booze	76	+12
52.	Fried food	75	-7
53.	Ice cream	74	-17
54.	Complaining	72	+14
55.	Cookies	69	-18
56.	Single use plastic	68	+100
57.	Shopping	68	-11
58.	People	66	-11
59.	Caffeine	65	+11
60.	Stuff	60	-10
61.	Masturbation	59	+3
62.	Liquor	58	-5
63.	F***boys	58	-24
64.	Takeout	57	-4
65.	Sobriety	57	-9
66.	Hope	57	-43
67.	Donald Trump	56	-46
68.	Procrastination	56	-13
69.	Virginity	55	-21
70.	McDonald's	55	-8
71.	Hot Cheetos	55	-5
72.	French fries	53	-20
73.	Netflix	53	-8
74.	Fizzy drinks	49	+3
75.	Chick Fil A	48	+4
76.	Eating out	48	-10
77.	Makeup	47	-32
78.	Porn	47	+21
79.	Myself	45	-3
80.	Juuling	45
81.	Him	44	-7
82.	Pasta	44	-3
83.	Desserts	41	-14
84.	Food	40	-25
85.	Coke	40	-14
86.	Pork	39	+17
87.	Dating	38	+23
88.	Mass shootings	38
89.	Sleep	38	-16
90.	Breathing	37	-47
91.	Boba	37	+3
92.	Being single	36	+22
93.	Cake	36	-6
94.	My will to live	36	-36
95.	Pancakes	36	-15
96.	The presidency	35	-43
97.	Online shopping	32	-15
98.	Tea	31	+10
99.	Brexit	30	+27
100.	This	30	-5
101.	TV	30	-5

Top Categories

Unlike previous years, no non-political celebrities inspired large numbers of people to give them up.

Rank	Category	Number of Tweets
1.	food	6,702
2.	technology	3,556
3.	habits	2,034
4.	smoking/drugs/alcohol	2,027
5.	relationship	1,339
6.	irony	946
7.	school/work	714
8.	sex	568
9.	religion	404
10.	politics	252
11.	generic	224
12.	possessions	155
13.	entertainment	149
14.	shopping	147
15.	health/hygiene	125
16.	money	94
17.	sports	53
18.	weather	21
19.	clothes	14

Media Coverage

The Lent Tracker received some media attention this year:

• Christianity Today
• Quartz
• MarketWatch
• Visalia Times-Delta
• WVOC New Orleans
• Newsweek
• The Sun

See the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent in 2018 on Twitter, continually updated until February 17, 2018. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2018 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2018 yet.

As I write this post, with about 1,500 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “social networking,” “alcohol,” and “twitter” lead the list. Ash Wednesday coincides with Valentine’s Day this year (and thus Easter with April Fools’ Day), so I expect relationship-related tweets to run higher than usual.

Look for the usual post-mortem on February 18, 2018.

This year, alcohol topped the list for the first time; it’s been hovering in the top five for the past few years, last year landing at a then-record #3. Possibly the recent popularity of Dry January (according to the article, 16% of British adults participated in 2016) is carrying over to Lent.

“Chips” cracked the top five this year largely because British Prime Minister Theresa May announced she was giving them up for Lent. This announcement had knock-on effects lower down the list, with “her favourite thing” and “live mice” both coming in at #88. The announcement of the potential closure of a U.K. chip factory the next day led to further jokes. For my U.K. readers, yes, I know you call them crisps (and your “chips” are U.S. “French fries”); I would now tell myself in 2009, when I first started compiling this list, not to combine “chips” and “crisps” into a single line, but it’s too late now.

Donald Trump is a big winner this year, landing at #22, just behind “Facebook” but ahead of “hope.” “The presidency” comes in at #52. In all, there are 1,002 tweets mentioning “Trump,” “President,” and “POTUS,” which is good enough for #10 on the list if we were to combine them all into a single line.

“The dirtiest thing” (#66) refers to a campaign to give up non-renewable energy.

This year, 73,334 tweets (excluding retweets) specifically mention giving up something. This total is up from last year’s 60,000 tweets; I used broader search terms this year (“lent” and “lent2017”) than I have in the past. In all, this year the analysis covers 694,244 tweets, up from 200,000 last year–again, largely because of the broader search terms.

Rank	Word	Count	Change from last year’s rank
1.	Alcohol	2,396	+2
2.	Social networking	2,148	0
3.	Chocolate	2,143	-2
4.	Twitter	2,064	0
5.	Chips	1,416	+15
6.	Swearing	1,395	0
7.	School	1,189	-2
8.	Soda	1,186	-1
9.	Fast food	1,092	+1
10.	Sweets	990	-2
11.	Coffee	969	-2
12.	Meat	909	-1
13.	Lent	906	0
14.	College	894	+5
15.	Beer	888	+8
16.	Bread	691	0
17.	Sugar	660	-5
18.	Life	645	+11
19.	Sex	612	-1
20.	You	609	-5
21.	Facebook	594	-7
22.	Donald Trump	520	+62
23.	Hope	456	+31
24.	Work	442	+3
25.	Boys	433	-1
26.	Religion	406	+4
27.	Junk food	401	-6
28.	Homework	393	-6
29.	Pizza	373	-12
30.	Smoking	296	+5
31.	Candy	288	-5
32.	Cheese	284	+4
33.	Marijuana	267	+6
34.	Starbucks	265	-6
35.	Catholicism	259	+12
36.	Ice cream	249	-5
37.	Cookies	227	+1
38.	F***boys	220	-13
39.	Wine	219	-2
40.	Being petty	212	+21
41.	Instagram	210	-8
41.	Breathing	210	+22
42.	Rice	209	0
43.	Carbs	202	+5
43.	Fried food	202	+6
44.	Makeup	201	+2
45.	Shopping	190	+3
46.	People	189	+4
47.	Virginity	185	+12
48.	Red meat	184	+3
49.	Stuff	180	-5
50.	Snapchat	168	-16
51.	French fries	166	-6
52.	The presidency	164	+82
53.	Procrastination	159	+3
54.	Men	158	+18
55.	Sobriety	156	+5
56.	Liquor	155	+6
57.	My will to live	154	+77
58.	Food	150	-15
58.	Negativity	150	-3
59.	Takeout	148	+7
60.	Dairy	144	+6
61.	McDonald's	143	-8
62.	Booze	141	-4
63.	Masturbation	138	-8
64.	Netflix	136	-32
64.	Hot Cheetos	136	-1
65.	Eating out	133	+6
66.	The dirtiest thing	132	+28
67.	Complaining	130	-10
68.	Desserts	126	-16
69.	Caffeine	125	-19
70.	Coke	124	-9
71.	Lying	123	+15
72.	Sleep	115	-2
73.	Him	114	+3
74.	Feelings	108	-22
75.	Fizzy drinks	103	-12
76.	My job	99	+15
76.	Juice	99	+1
76.	Chick Fil A	99	-8
77.	Pasta	95	-12
78.	Pancakes	94	-7
79.	Nothing	91	+14
80.	Online shopping	89	-17
81.	Naps	88	+9
82.	Church	87	-1
83.	Living	86	+43
84.	Memes	83	+27
85.	Cake	82	-15
86.	My phone	79	-33
87.	Stress	78	-14
88.	Eating live mice	77
88.	My attitude	77	-10
88.	Caring	77	-24
88.	Her favourite treat	77
89.	Abbreviations	75	+41
90.	Politics	74	+3
90.	Sweet tea	74	-2
91.	Potatoes	72	0
91.	Classes	72	+10
92.	Boba	70	+10
93.	Christianity	69	-13
94.	TV	65	-11
94.	Sarcasm	65	-20
95.	Taco Bell	63	-20
95.	Donuts	63	+6
96.	Oxygen	62	+18
96.	Porn	62	-24
97.	Studying	60	-9
97.	My boyfriend	60	+3
97.	The gym	60	+8
97.	Diet coke	60	-30
98.	Everything	59	-11
98.	Anxiety	59	+13
99.	New Year's resolutions	58	-20
100.	Chipotle	57	-31
100.	Pork	57	-16

Fast Food

Chipotle now lands behind even Taco Bell.

Snack Food

Hot Cheetos continue their snack-food dominance.

Adulting

It’s a verb now. Or at least a gerund.

Emojis

Just over 14,000 tweets (19%) included an emoji this year. I haven’t tracked emoji usage before, so I can’t say how that compares to previous years.

Here are the top five emojis used this year, along with the most-popular items given up:

Emoji	Tweets	Most-popular Given Up
😂	2,428	chocolate, alcohol, twitter
😭	1,154	chocolate, sweets, fast food
😩	889	chocolate, sweets, fast food
🙃	875	chocolate, coffee, fast food
🙄	640	chocolate, alcohol, social media

Conversely, here are the most-popular things given up with tweets that include emojis:

Given up	Tweets	Most-popular Emojis*
chocolate	793	🍫 🙈 😫
social media	549	✌ 👋 🙏
alcohol	537	😅 ♀ 😬
twitter	482	✌ 👋 🙏
sweets	355	😅 🍬 🍫

* Excluding the top-ten emojis for the year.

Retweets

The rest of this data excludes retweets, but here are the three tweets mentioning Lent that drew the most retweets. I feel that this list encapsulates Twitter; not many other top-three lists would include college humor, the pope, and Rick “Never Gonna Give You Up” Astley.

*gives up college for Lent*

— College Student (@ColIegeStudent) March 1, 2017

Lent is a new beginning, a path leading to the certain goal of Easter, Christ’s victory over death.

— Pope Francis (@Pontifex) March 1, 2017

I hear Rick Astley really struggles with Lent

— Martin (@martin466004) March 1, 2017

Categories

Here are my categories for the top 740 things people gave up:

Rank	Category	Number of Tweets
1.	food	17,017
2.	technology	5,659
3.	habits	4,962
4.	smoking/drugs/alcohol	4,880
5.	irony	3,495
6.	school/work	3,470
7.	relationship	2,541
8.	sex	1,179
9.	religion	1,055
10.	politics	911
11.	generic	679
12.	entertainment	447
13.	shopping	407
14.	health/hygiene	328
15.	money	279
16.	sports	152
17.	possessions	103
18.	clothes	64
19.	weather	28
20.	celebrity	20

Media Coverage

The Lent Tracker received some media attention this year:

1. Christianity Today
2. International Business Times
3. The Sun
4. Daily Herald
5. Baptist News
6. Cleveland.com
7. Pajamas Media
8. Catholic News Service

See the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent in 2017 on Twitter, continually updated until March 4, 2017. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2017 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2017 yet.

As I write this post, with about 1,600 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “social networking,” “alcohol,” and “chocolate” lead the list. My main question, given the current U.S. political climate, is how high Donald Trump will rank: he’s currently vying with smoking and sugar for #24–last year, as a presidential candidate, he finished at #82.

Look for the usual post-mortem on March 4, 2017.

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.

Snack Food

Hot Cheetos show no signs of slowing down.

Boba

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

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

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.

“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.