What People Gave Up for Lent 2013 (According to Twitter)

Twitter buzzed last week with proclamations of Lenten sacrifices, alongside plenty of jokes about what to give up for the 40 days of penance leading up to Easter.

Here’s a look at this year’s official Top 100, compiled by Stephen Smith of OpenBible.info.

With the recent resignation of Pope Benedict XVI, “being pope” topped the 2013 list (full list below) of what to give up for Lent. (“The pope” ranked No. 18 and “Catholicism” No. 28.)

Papal jokes aside, social media seems to be the go-to thing to give up, with social networking (No. 4), Instagram (No. 10), Twitter (No. 11), and Facebook (No. 19) all appearing high on the list.

Chocolate, among the most popular Lenten sacrifices in 2012 and in 2011, slipped all the way to No. 17, possibly because Valentine’s fell the day after Ash Wednesday this year. Food remained the most popular category of items to forgo, with chips to frozen yogurt making the list.

The full 2013 list (below) has some interesting mentions, as Smith points out.

“The only celebrity to make the list was British boy band One Direction, up substantially at #41,” he wrote. “I learned several new words this year: twerking (#34), a type of dance move, selfies (#46), or self-shot photos taken with a phone, subtweeting (#57), or tweeting about someone without mentioning them by name, oomf (#71), or ‘one of my followers,’ and Nando’s (#76), a chicken restaurant.”

Lent began on Ash Wednesday, February 13, and ends before Easter, March 31.