This year, the usual trio of alcohol, Twitter, and social networking led the list, though alcohol easily outpaced Twitter this year–unlike last year, when alcohol fell behind Twitter. If you combine “baseball” and “Major League Baseball,” the combination would have ended up at #5, a reference to this year’s cancellation of the regular start of the baseball season in the U.S. As usual, there were several U.S. political issues, with “coherent speaking,” “ice cream” (up 35 places), and “the presidency” referring to Joe Biden, who landed at #97 this year. “War” came in at #52, referring to the ongoing conflict in Ukraine, with “Putin,” “Russia,” “Ukraine,” and “Russian oil” also appearing near the bottom of the list. New this year is “Wordle,” a currently popular online game owned by the New York Times.
This year’s list draws from 19,411 tweets out of 389,796 total tweets mentioning Lent.
COVID-19
Most COVID-related terms declined substantially this year, aside from “masks,” which stayed relatively constant.
Social Media
TikTok finally overtook Instagram. Facebook, not on this chart, is also behind Instagram.
Restaurants
Food-delivery services like DoorDash overtook traditional fast-food restaurants this year.
Plastic
Plastic was fashionable to give up in 2018-2019, but no longer.
Top 100 Things Twitterers Gave Up for Lent in 2022
| 1. | Alcohol | 786 | +1 |
| 2. | 635 | -1 | |
| 3. | Social networking | 471 | 0 |
| 4. | Lent | 422 | 0 |
| 5. | Sex | 233 | +5 |
| 6. | Coffee | 229 | +5 |
| 7. | Chocolate | 224 | -2 |
| 8. | Swearing | 219 | 0 |
| 9. | Men | 213 | 0 |
| 10. | Meat | 211 | -4 |
| 11. | Baseball | 194 | +62 |
| 12. | Soda | 186 | +5 |
| 13. | Catholicism | 169 | +1 |
| 14. | Sweets | 162 | -2 |
| 15. | Religion | 156 | +4 |
| 16. | Marijuana | 150 | +5 |
| 17. | Giving up things | 131 | -4 |
| 18. | Work | 130 | +11 |
| 19. | Fast food | 129 | -1 |
| 20. | You | 109 | +8 |
| 21. | Sugar | 93 | +1 |
| 22. | Coherent speaking | 91 | |
| 23. | Tiktok | 83 | +9 |
| 24. | Smoking | 77 | +2 |
| 25. | Him | 75 | +20 |
| 26. | Ice cream | 71 | +35 |
| 27. | School | 70 | -7 |
| 28. | 69 | -1 | |
| 29. | Beer | 69 | +12 |
| 30. | Liquor | 68 | +20 |
| 31. | Hope | 68 | +6 |
| 32. | 68 | -1 | |
| 33. | Virginity | 67 | +16 |
| 34. | Masks | 66 | +1 |
| 35. | Starbucks | 66 | +15 |
| 36. | Bread | 62 | -10 |
| 37. | Life | 62 | -7 |
| 38. | Food | 61 | +6 |
| 39. | Lying | 60 | +9 |
| 40. | Chips | 59 | -17 |
| 41. | Masturbation | 59 | +17 |
| 42. | Red meat | 58 | +8 |
| 43. | My job | 57 | +28 |
| 44. | Pussy | 55 | +22 |
| 45. | Caffeine | 52 | +13 |
| 46. | Wordle | 51 | |
| 47. | Wine | 47 | -5 |
| 48. | Shopping | 47 | -1 |
| 49. | Candy | 46 | -6 |
| 50. | People | 46 | +13 |
| 51. | Booze | 46 | -19 |
| 52. | War | 44 | +41 |
| 53. | Sobriety | 42 | +3 |
| 54. | Cheese | 40 | +9 |
| 55. | Major League Baseball | 40 | |
| 56. | Anxiety | 39 | -4 |
| 57. | Homework | 39 | -21 |
| 58. | Lint | 38 | +4 |
| 59. | Bills | 38 | +17 |
| 60. | My will to live | 34 | +7 |
| 61. | Online shopping | 33 | -25 |
| 62. | Rice | 33 | -7 |
| 63. | Church | 33 | +1 |
| 64. | Procrastination | 33 | -12 |
| 65. | English | 32 | |
| 66. | Takeout | 32 | -27 |
| 67. | Women | 31 | +10 |
| 68. | The presidency | 31 | +21 |
| 69. | Fried food | 30 | +7 |
| 70. | Junk food | 30 | -18 |
| 71. | Sleep | 29 | -4 |
| 72. | Being gay | 29 | +3 |
| 73. | Pizza | 27 | -6 |
| 74. | Sanity | 27 | -4 |
| 75. | Complaining | 27 | -11 |
| 76. | Cookies | 26 | -26 |
| 77. | Porn | 26 | -3 |
| 78. | Carbs | 26 | -20 |
| 79. | The Lakers | 26 | |
| 80. | College | 25 | -25 |
| 81. | Breathing | 25 | -40 |
| 82. | Dairy | 25 | -10 |
| 83. | Eating out | 25 | -23 |
| 84. | Coke | 24 | -19 |
| 85. | Rent | 24 | -11 |
| 86. | Racism | 24 | -8 |
| 87. | Depression | 24 | -42 |
| 88. | Putin | 23 | |
| 89. | Christianity | 23 | -38 |
| 90. | God | 23 | -28 |
| 91. | Desserts | 23 | -32 |
| 92. | Eating | 22 | -12 |
| 93. | Stress | 22 | -19 |
| 94. | Celibacy | 22 | -18 |
| 95. | Pancakes | 22 | -37 |
| 96. | Her | 22 | -11 |
| 97. | Joe Biden | 21 | -4 |
| 98. | Russia | 21 | |
| 99. | Ukraine | 21 | |
| 100. | Russian oil | 19 |
Top Categories
| 1. | food | 2,597 |
| 2. | technology | 1,479 |
| 3. | smoking/drugs/alcohol | 1,448 |
| 4. | habits | 1,034 |
| 5. | irony | 947 |
| 6. | relationship | 780 |
| 7. | sex | 547 |
| 8. | religion | 485 |
| 9. | politics | 303 |
| 10. | school/work | 300 |
| 11. | sports | 294 |
| 12. | money | 181 |
| 13. | entertainment | 127 |
| 14. | health/hygiene | 120 |
| 15. | shopping | 102 |
| 16. | health | 84 |
| 17. | possessions | 23 |
| 18. | clothes | 8 |
| 19. | weather | 6 |
| 20. | celebrity | 5 |