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Archive for February, 2016

What Twitterers Are Giving up for Lent (2016 Edition)

Saturday, February 13th, 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.

Snack Food

Hot Cheetos show no signs of slowing down.

Boba

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

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:

Posted in Lent | Comments Off on What Twitterers Are Giving up for Lent (2016 Edition)

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.

Posted in Lent, Twitter | Comments Off on Track in Real Time What People Are Giving Up for Lent in 2016

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