What To Give Up for Lent? Twitter Reveals Top 100 Ideas of 2015

[Updated Feb. 23 with final total from Ash Wednesday week.]

Nearly one in five Americans observed Lent last year. This year, more than 400,000 tweeted about their fast.

Food and technology remained the most popular categories that tweeting Americans reported giving up in 2015. The top five choices: School, chocolate, Twitter, alcohol, and social networking—ideas consistently popular for Christians since Smith began using Twitter’s API to track Lent in 2009. [The final 2015 tally is below.]

"My hypothesis last year was that 'school' was so high because Ash Wednesday coincided with spring break at many schools, but that isn’t the case this year. In the UK, A-Level exams are coming up at the beginning of March, so that may be part of it," wrote Stephen Smith of OpenBible.info who tracks hundreds of thousands of Lenten tweets during the week of Ash Wednesday.

Smith also reported on how retweets affected his Lent tracker. While the top 15 terms are largely similar to the original list, college jumps nine spots to No. 2, and Obama jumps 61 spots to No. 9. [The full list is below.]

Overall, the number of tweets fell sharply from last year. In 2014, roughly 646,000 tweets were published during the week of Ash Wednesday compared to the 409,000 in 2015.

Seven Deadly Sins

Favorite Brands

Current events and pop culture are sometimes reflected in Lenten tweets, though Smith noted his surprise that given last week's harsh winter weather, "weather-related tweets aren’t more popular."

"As a category, they move up one place from last year (to #12 from #13), though individually 'snow' moves up eight places and 'cold weather' moves up 79 places," he wrote.

In 2014, rapper Lil Boosie was released from prison during the week of Ash Wednesday, leading people to joke that he had given up prison for Lent. (The hip-hop artist came in at No. 51.) In 2013, after Pope Benedict announced he leaving the papacy, some wrote he was abstaining from “being pope.” (This phrase ranked No. 1.)

Boys and Girls

Diets

One thing people don't give up: Bible verses. Bible Gateway told CT that Lent is its busiest season of the year, with traffic between Ash Wednesday and Easter clocking in at 15 percent higher than the rest of 2014. Searches relating to dust and fasting increased 1000 percent and 500 percent respectively on the days surrounding Ash Wednesday. Searches for repentance increased by 50 percent on Ash Wednesday.

Fast Food

Netflix v. Television

Of the 17 percent of Americans that observe Lent, the majority are practicing Catholics (63%) compared to 16 percent of practicing Protestants, according to a 2014 report by the Barna Group. People born in 1945 or earlier are most likely to fast (26%), and people born between 1946 and 1964 are least likely (10%). About 20 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 30 say they will fast.

Attitudes

Twitter users giving up technology join 48 percent of practicing Protestants in the endeavor, according to Barna. Last year, people planned to fast from social networks (16%), smartphones (13%), television (11%), video games (10%), and the Internet (9%).

Faith and Technology

Among all Lent fasters—including those not on Twitter—food is still the most popular thing to sacrifice. Ninety-six percent of fasting Protestants and 89 percent of fasting Catholics are giving up some food item. The overall breakdown includes chocolate (30%), meat (28%), soda (26%) and alcohol (24%).

Snacks

CT regularly reports on Lent, including three views on why bother celebrating Lent, what neuroscience tells us about Lent, Lent in Narnia, and the argument for lengthening Lent.

Here are the top things given up in 2014, 2013, 2012, and 2011.

Here is Smith's final total of the top 100 most-mentioned Lenten sacrifices (both serious and cynical) in 2015:

Rank	Word	Count
1	School	6,281
2	Chocolate	4,293
3	Twitter	3,876
4	Alcohol	3,216
5	Social networking	3,090
6	Swearing	2,887
7	Soda	2,473
8	Sweets	2,122
9	Fast food	2,056
10	Coffee	1,706
11	College	1,631
12	F***boys	1,527
13	You	1,462
14	Lent	1,348
15	Meat	1,335
16	Homework	1,208
17	Sex	1,165
18	Junk food	1,112
19	Pizza	1,067
20	Bread	1,060
21	Chips	905
22	Facebook	853
23	Boys	665
24	Candy	625
25	Netflix	610
26	Religion	602
27	Beer	596
28	Starbucks	591
29	Work	575
30	Sugar	565
31	Instagram	554
32	Ice cream	520
33	Life	489
34	Winter	454
35	Smoking	441
36	Wine	435
37	Me	434
38	Cookies	430
39	Chipotle	422
40	Snapchat	408
41	Feelings	393
42	Marijuana	381
43	Shopping	374
44	Rice	357
45	My phone	351
45	Virginity	351
46	Catholicism	337
47	Food	329
48	Cheese	315
49	Stuff	307
50	McDonald’s	300
51	Carbs	295
52	Snow	284
53	Desserts	276
54	French fries	257
55	People	248
56	Coke	245
57	Fried food	242
58	Red meat	237
59	Masturbation	233
60	Selfies	230
61	Hope	224
61	Sobriety	224
62	Procrastination	219
63	Complaining	216
64	Makeup	214
64	Caffeine	214
65	Booze	211
65	Negativity	211
66	Takeout	210
67	Eating out	184
68	Cake	183
69	Chick Fil A	179
70	Obama	178
71	Fizzy drinks	175
72	Porn	173
73	Diet Coke	172
74	Pancakes	159
75	Breathing	158
76	Classes	157
77	Sleep	156
78	Peanut butter	152
79	Cold weather	151
80	Hot Cheetos	145
81	Liquor	144
82	Tea	143
83	Dunkin Donuts	138
84	Taco Bell	137
85	Men	135
86	Sarcasm	133
87	Winning	127
88	Online shopping	126
89	Sweet tea	125
90	Caring	124
91	Pasta	123
92	Naps	122
93	Juice	117
94	Nothing	115
94	A levels	115
94	Being mean	115
95	Him	113
96	New Year’s resolutions	112
97	My swag	111
97	Gluten	111
98	Exercise	110
98	Church	110
99	My boyfriend	109
100	Dairy	106

2015 total including retweets (final):

Rank	Word	Count	Difference from non-retweet rank
1	School	38,532	0
2	College	17,615	9
3	F***boys	6,461	9
4	Chocolate	5,127	-2
5	Twitter	5,074	-2
6	Alcohol	4,427	-2
7	Social networking	3,968	-2
8	Swearing	3,534	-2
9	Obama	3,351	61
10	You	2,940	3
11	Soda	2,820	-4
12	Coffee	2,506	-2
13	Sweets	2,499	-5
14	Homework	2,456	2
15	Fast food	2,356	-6

2014 total (final):

Rank	Word	Count
1	School	11,757
2	Chocolate	9,515
3	Twitter	8,642
4	Swearing	7,132
5	Alcohol	6,325
6	Soda	5,446
7	Social networking	4,197
8	Sweets	4,188
9	Fast food	4,088
10	Lent	2,842
11	Meat	2,790
12	Homework	2,760
13	Junk food	2,723
14	Coffee	2,678
15	Sex	2,392
16	Chips	2,129
17	Bread	2,020
18	You	2,016
19	Facebook	1,926
20	Pizza	1,628
21	Starbucks	1,566
22	Candy	1,412
23	Instagram	1,212
24	Religion	1,147
25	Virginity	1,143
26	Cookies	1,053
27	Work	1,031
28	Ice cream	1,025
29	Boys	1,021
30	Marijuana	1,018
31	Smoking	994
32	Beer	939
33	Life	933
34	Food	930
35	McDonalds	926
36	Winter	853
37	Netflix	851
38	College	819
39	My phone	777
40	Shopping	748
41	Stuff	733
42	Selfies	731
43	Chipotle	726
44	Masturbation	725
45	Sugar	682
46	Cheese	670
47	Me	656
48	Sobriety	655
49	Wine	652
50	Carbs	648
51	Boosie	581
52	Fried food	574
53	Caffeine	563
54	Rice	562
55	Catholicism	561
56	Snapchat	543
57	Coke	541
58	Procrastination	517
59	People	516
60	Snow	506
61	Desserts	486
62	Fizzy drinks	480
63	French fries	475
64	Takeout	464
65	Obama	452
66	Makeup	451
67	Taco Bell	434
68	Feelings	434
68	Porn	430
69	Nothing	427
70	My swag	420
71	Negativity	417
72	Red meat	396
73	Diet Coke	390
74	Sarcasm	380
75	Breathing	369
76	Caring	357
77	Complaining	354
78	Tea	352
79	Pancakes	340
80	Peanut butter	336
81	Sweet tea	335
82	Booze	325
83	Sleep	320
84	Hope	316
85	Cake	313
86	Pasta	303
87	TV	302
88	Texting	297
89	Eating out	275
90	Exercise	274
91	Pants	270
92	Electricity	268
93	The gym	258
94	Liquor	245
95	Church	243
96	Tinder	237
97	Tumblr	236
98	Math	236
98	Juice	232
99	Being mean	230
100	Chick Fil A	228

2015 top categories (final):

Rank	Category	Tweets
1	food	30,148
2	school/work	10,819
3	technology	9,277
4	habits	8,057
5	smoking/drugs/alcohol	6,230
6	relationship	4,229
7	irony	2,978
8	sex	2,274
9	health/hygiene	1,601
10	religion	1,470
11	entertainment	1,069
12	weather	986
13	generic	834
14	shopping	685
15	sports	410
16	money	276
17	politics	216
18	clothes	174
19	celebrity	165
20	possessions	83

2014 top categories (final):

Rank	Category	Tweets
1	food	62,453
2	school/work	18,148
3	technology	17,615
4	habits	16,616
5	smoking/drugs/alcohol	12,665
6	irony	7,319
7	relationship	6,563
8	sex	5,483
9	health/hygiene	3,476
10	religion	2,784
11	generic	2,504
12	entertainment	1,959
13	weather	1,496
14	shopping	1,183
15	celebrity	961
16	sports	780
17	politics	547
18	clothes	540
19	money	492
20	habit	393
21	possessions	217
22	clothing	62