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This year, the usual trio of alcohol, Twitter, and social networking led the list, with alcohol just outpacing Twitter.

This report draws from 12,891 tweets out of 386,048 total tweets mentioning Lent.

Vegetables

The increase in “tomatoes” and “vegetables” refers to the announcement that several large grocery stores in the UK will temporarily restrict the number of tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers that customers can buy because of shortages.

Social Networks

TikTok continues its march upward, this year helped by news that some official EU bodies are banning it from staff devices. Meanwhile, Facebook continues its slide.

Hate

“Hate” and “being a hater” both had sharp increases this year, while “racism” declined.

Restaurants

Food delivery services continue to rise, while Chipotle overtakes Chick Fil A for the first time since 2016.

Water

The increase in “drinking water” refers to a satirical piece about a train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio. The spike in 2021 refers to a Texas power crisis that led to unavailable water.

Defending

Finally, the jump in “defending” refers to a recent loss by the Liverpool football (soccer) team.

Top 100 Things Twitterers Gave Up for Lent in 2023

1.	Alcohol	544	0
2.	Twitter	537	0
3.	Social networking	405	0
4.	Lent	198	0
5.	Chocolate	167	+2
6.	Swearing	161	+2
7.	Coffee	143	-1
8.	Soda	132	+4
9.	Drinking water	121
10.	Sweets	121	+4
11.	Men	119	-2
12.	Sex	118	-7
13.	Fast food	115	+6
14.	Marijuana	104	+2
15.	Meat	102	-5
16.	Giving up things	90	+1
17.	Tiktok	90	+8
18.	Work	84	0
19.	Sugar	77	+4
20.	Catholicism	76	-7
21.	Religion	72	-6
22.	Liquor	71	+9
23.	You	59	-1
24.	Instagram	59	+8
25.	Smoking	56	+1
26.	Chips	53	+11
27.	Bread	53	+7
28.	Lying	52	+8
29.	Starbucks	52	+5
30.	Tomatoes	50
31.	Candy	47	+13
32.	Defending	45	+48
33.	Him	44	-6
34.	Beer	44	-3
35.	Masturbation	42	+3
36.	Food	38	-1
37.	Life	38	-2
38.	Pussy	36	+2
39.	Caffeine	34	+2
40.	Virginity	32	-8
41.	Hope	31	-9
42.	Red meat	30	-4
43.	Facebook	29	-13
44.	Fried food	29	+10
45.	People	29	0
46.	Sobriety	28	0
47.	Booze	27	-2
48.	Her	27	+14
49.	Vegetables	27	+27
50.	Cheese	26	-3
51.	School	25	-22
52.	Shopping	25	-8
53.	Eating out	25	+6
54.	Hate	24	+16
55.	My job	24	-16
56.	Vaping	23	+12
57.	Homework	22	-8
58.	Junk food	22	-3
59.	Carbs	22	-1
60.	Wine	22	-17
61.	Doordash	21	+5
62.	Christianity	21	-1
63.	Complaining	21	-6
64.	Being a hater	20	+8
65.	Gambling	20	-1
66.	Porn	20	-8
67.	Women	19	-14
68.	Takeout	19	-15
69.	Online shopping	19	-18
70.	Snacking	19	0
71.	Being gay	19	-15
72.	Water	18	0
73.	Coke	18	-14
74.	Procrastination	18	-22
75.	Hookah	18	-8
76.	Nicotine	17	-12
77.	Breathing	17	-18
78.	Rice	17	-26
79.	Anxiety	17	-31
80.	Hard liquor	17	-16
81.	Pancakes	16	-19
82.	Pizza	16	-26
83.	Losing	16	-19
84.	The presidency	16	-30
85.	Pork	15	-18
86.	Sanity	15	-29
87.	Ice cream	15	-59
88.	Cookies	15	-31
89.	Video games	14	-18
90.	Juice	14	-23
91.	Desserts	13	-30
92.	Hoes	13	-23
93.	My will to live	13	-43
94.	Salad	13	-14
95.	Lint	13	-46
96.	My phone	13	-24
97.	Gossip	13	-33
98.	Dairy	13	-39
99.	Church	12	-47
100.	French fries	12	-30

Top Categories

1.	food	1,976
2.	technology	1,246
3.	smoking/drugs/alcohol	1,031
4.	habits	645
5.	irony	508
6.	relationship	459
7.	sex	323
8.	religion	233
9.	school/work	152
10.	entertainment	84
11.	sports	80
12.	money	73
13.	shopping	62
14.	health/hygiene	57
15.	politics	42
16.	weather	15
17.	possessions	13
18.	clothes	6
19.	celebrity	2

See the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent in 2023 on Twitter, continually updated through February 24, 2023. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2023 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2023 yet.

As I write this post, with about 660 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “twitter,” “social networking,” and “alcohol” lead the list. Right now, “sugar” is at #5, a much-higher showing than it usually has; we’ll see if it holds its place through the week.

I expect “twitter” to run higher this year given some of its recent, polarizing decisions. Twitter has also talked about disabling its API, upon which the Twitter Lent Tracker depends, any day now, so hopefully the Tracker will survive the week.

Look for the usual post-mortem on February 25, 2023.

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.	Twitter	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.	Facebook	69	-1
29.	Beer	69	+12
30.	Liquor	68	+20
31.	Hope	68	+6
32.	Instagram	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

See the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent in 2022 on Twitter, continually updated through March 4, 2022. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2022 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2022 yet.

As I write this post, with about 530 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “twitter,” “alcohol,” and “social networking” lead the list, with “masks” ranking right now at #4 (related to some countries dropping mask requirements for the COVID-19 pandemic).

Look for the usual post-mortem on March 5, 2022.

This year, the usual trio of Twitter, alcohol, and social networking led the list. But current events influenced the list this year more than most. Radio personality Rush Limbaugh‘s death on Ash Wednesday led many to comment that they were giving him up for Lent, landing him at #7. A major winter storm (#62, snow and #77, winter) in Texas (#34) knocked out electricity (#5), water (#35), and heat (#68) for millions of people. Finally, the global pandemic (#23, covid) elevated topics like going to the pub (#24) and suppressed others, like eating out (#75). Zoom (#63), a videoconferencing service, appeared for the first time. “Executive orders” (#53) refers to a satirical tweet about U.S. President Biden.

This year’s list draws from 24,312 tweets out of 557,560 total tweets mentioning Lent.

COVID-19

The global coronavirus pandemic led to jumps in several topics, most notably “going to the pub,” which was almost as popular as “COVID,” and was followed closely by food pickup and delivery.

Social Media

In the battle of the social networks, TikTok has almost overtaken Instagram, while Snapchat fell below Tinder. Facebook, not shown on this chart because it makes the chart harder to read, was once dominant and is now only just above Instagram.

Fast Food

Fast food is down across the board.

Top 103 Things Twitterers Gave Up for Lent in 2021

1.	Twitter	911	+2
2.	Alcohol	895	-1
3.	Social networking	687	-1
4.	Lent	515	+2
5.	Chocolate	476	0
6.	Meat	337	-2
7.	Rush Limbaugh	306
8.	Swearing	250	+3
9.	Men	242	+4
10.	Sex	225	-2
11.	Coffee	214	-4
12.	Sweets	213	-2
13.	Giving up things	188	+14
14.	Catholicism	185	+9
15.	Electricity	178	+99
16.	Soda	174	-7
17.	Fast food	167	-5
18.	Religion	154	+6
19.	School	140	-2
20.	Marijuana	138	0
21.	Sugar	136	+1
22.	Chips	123	-3
23.	Covid	116
24.	Going to the pub	115
25.	Bread	115	-7
26.	Smoking	114	+5
27.	Facebook	113	+3
28.	You	111	-13
29.	Work	102	-13
30.	Life	99	-2
31.	Instagram	99	-2
32.	Tiktok	96	+1
33.	Booze	94	+12
34.	Texas	92
35.	Water	87	+61
36.	Masks	85
37.	Online shopping	85	+24
38.	Homework	83	+5
39.	Hope	82	+15
40.	Living	80	+36
41.	Takeout	77	+26
42.	Breathing	75	+17
43.	Beer	71	-22
44.	Wine	71	-4
45.	Power	61
46.	Candy	60	-12
47.	Food	59	-1
48.	Him	59	+6
49.	Depression	58	-14
50.	Shopping	55	+7
51.	Lying	53	-3
52.	Executive orders	53
53.	Virginity	51	-28
54.	Liquor	51	-16
55.	Cookies	51	-2
56.	Starbucks	51	-26
57.	Red meat	50	-18
58.	Christianity	49	+18
59.	Junk food	49	-17
60.	Procrastination	49	0
61.	Anxiety	47	-18
62.	Snow	46	+47
63.	Zoom	44
64.	Rice	44	-14
65.	College	42	-28
66.	Sobriety	41	-8
67.	Lockdown	41
68.	Heat	40	+44
69.	Carbs	40	-28
70.	Pancakes	40	+3
71.	Caffeine	40	-24
72.	Donald Trump	40	-22
73.	Masturbation	39	-24
74.	Desserts	38	-3
75.	Eating out	38	-22
76.	Simping	36	-34
77.	Winter	36	+28
78.	Ice cream	34	-14
79.	Lint	34	+1
80.	God	33	+5
81.	Cheese	33	-30
82.	Negativity	33	-22
83.	People	32	-34
84.	Complaining	32	-28
85.	Being alive	32	+19
86.	Church	31	-16
87.	Coke	29	-25
88.	Pussy	28	-22
89.	Boys	28	-57
90.	Pizza	28	-29
91.	Sleep	28	-8
92.	My will to live	28	-11
93.	Amazon	27	-1
94.	Sarcasm	26	-5
95.	Hate	26	+15
96.	Snacking	25	-15
97.	Sanity	24	0
98.	My job	24	-44
99.	Cake	23	-22
100.	Dairy	22	-56
101.	The pandemic	22
102.	Chick Fil A	22	-47
103.	Baseball	22	+9

Top Categories

1.	food	3,419
2.	technology	2,305
3.	smoking/drugs/alcohol	1,613
4.	irony	1,341
5.	habits	1,198
6.	relationship	804
7.	religion	528
8.	sex	476
9.	health/hygiene	442
10.	school/work	414
11.	celebrity	313
12.	politics	242
13.	weather	213
14.	shopping	172
15.	money	125
16.	entertainment	106
17.	sports	48
18.	clothes	15
19.	possessions	12

See the top 100 things people are giving up for Lent in 2021 on Twitter, continually updated through February 19, 2021. You can also use the Historical Lent Tracker to see trends since 2009, though 2021 is still in flux, so I wouldn’t draw any conclusions about 2021 yet.

As I write this post, with about 593 tweets analyzed, perennial favorites “alcohol,” and “twitter,” and “social networking” lead the list. I expect to see tweets this year related to the global pandemic. And will TikTok make the top ten this year?

Look for the usual post-mortem on February 20, 2021.

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

Rank	Word	Count	Change from last year’s rank
1.	Alcohol	1,533	+1
2.	Social networking	1,236	-1
3.	Twitter	1,191	0
4.	Meat	570	+2
5.	Chocolate	534	-1
6.	Lent	468	-1
7.	Coffee	444	+1
8.	Sex	432	+2
9.	Soda	426	0
10.	Sweets	409	+2
11.	Swearing	403	-4
12.	Fast food	356	-1
13.	Men	336	+1
14.	Trolling	330	+106
15.	You	294	+3
16.	Work	288	-1
17.	School	284	-4
18.	Bread	254	-1
19.	Chips	235	+5
20.	Marijuana	214	+7
21.	Beer	210	+2
22.	Sugar	207	-2
23.	Catholicism	202	-2
24.	Religion	198	-7
25.	Virginity	196	+7
26.	Giving up things	177	-4
27.	Life	165	-2
28.	Instagram	156	+3
29.	Facebook	156	-3
30.	Starbucks	151	+6
31.	Smoking	146	+3
32.	Boys	138	-2
33.	TikTok	131	+89
34.	Candy	122	+1
35.	Depression	119	+16
36.	College	112	-20
37.	Liquor	112	+22
38.	Red meat	106	+5
39.	Wine	105	+8
40.	Carbs	104	+8
41.	Simping	104	+82
42.	Junk food	100	-5
43.	Homework	100	-3
44.	Anxiety	97	+9
45.	Dairy	94	+11
46.	Booze	93	+10
47.	Food	92	-1
48.	Fried food	92	+1
49.	Caffeine	86	+15
50.	Lying	85	-6
51.	Masturbation	85	-1
52.	People	84	+3
53.	Donald Trump	84	-10
54.	Rice	83	-14
55.	Cheese	81	-13
56.	Eating out	78	+3
57.	Cookies	75	-3
58.	Hope	75	-19
59.	Him	75	-6
60.	My job	73	-7
61.	Chick Fil A	70	+10
62.	Complaining	67	+10
63.	Shopping	65	+1
64.	Sobriety	64	+3
65.	Breathing	62	-24
66.	Negativity	62	-1
67.	Procrastination	61	-10
68.	Online shopping	61	0
69.	Pizza	60	-15
70.	Coke	59	+3
71.	Feelings	58	+24
72.	Ice cream	58	-19
73.	Coronavirus	58
74.	Porn	56	+3
75.	Juice	54	+5
76.	Boba	54	-15
77.	Pussy	52	-3
78.	Takeout	51	-15
79.	Bills	48	-9
80.	French fries	48	-10
81.	Church	46	-8
82.	Desserts	45	-10
83.	Being gay	44	+2
84.	Pancakes	44	-5
85.	Being a jerk online	44
86.	Being single	41	+4
87.	Hot Cheetos	40	-13
88.	Cheating	40	-6
89.	Chicken	39	-8
90.	Crying	39	-10
91.	Living	39	-4
92.	Christianity	39	-30
93.	Gambling	39	+6
94.	Being toxic	38	+29
95.	The streets	38	+28
96.	Cake	38	-9
97.	Energy drinks	37	-2
98.	TV	37	-13
99.	Women	37	0
100.	Pasta	36	-16

Top Categories

1.	food	6,259
2.	technology	3,125
3.	smoking/drugs/alcohol	2,767
4.	relationship	2,163
5.	habits	1,882
6.	irony	1,364
7.	sex	1,019
8.	school/work	882
9.	religion	647
10.	health/hygiene	352
11.	money	259
12.	entertainment	166
13.	politics	162
14.	shopping	160
15.	sports	84
16.	weather	18
17.	celebrity	17
18.	clothes	17
19.	possessions	16

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.