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This year alcohol topped the list for the first time since 2017, followed by social networking and Twitter. New to the top 100 this year are “trolling” (#14) and “being toxic” (#94), following Pope Francis’s call to give up online insults. Also new are “TikTok” (#33), “simping,” or acting obsequiously on TikTok (#41), “coronavirus” (#73) (related: shaking hands), and “the streets” (#95).

This year’s list draws from 35,817 tweets out of 540,684 total tweets mentioning Lent.

Plastic

Plastic has been appearing near the top of the list for the past two years as some churches, especially in the UK, have encouraged people to give it up for Lent. This year, mentions of plastic fell precipitously, suggesting that either giving it up has become less fashionable or that people inclined to give it up already did so over the past two years. In particular, “straws” received no mentions.

Social Media

As noted above, TikTok is the big winner here.

Fast Food

Chick-fil-A continues its march upward, while McDonald’s continues its decline.

Top 100 Things Twitterers Gave Up for Lent in 2020

Top Categories

Media Coverage

The Lent Tracker received some media attention this year:

• SBS
• TribLive
• BreakingNews.ie

See the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent in 2020 on Twitter, continually updated until February 29, 2020. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2020 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2020 yet.

As I write this post, with about 1,200 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “social networking,” “alcohol,” and “twitter” lead the list. I’ve already learned a new word: simping, “the type of person who, instead of trying to attract the opposite sex through being attractive and interesting, is more sycophantic and fawning,” commonly on TikTok. It’s currently at #12, though I assume it will fall as more people start posting.

Look for the usual post-mortem on March 1, 2020.