What to Give Up for Lent 2018? Consider Twitter’s Top 100 Ideas

Once again, you can follow in real time what Twitter users say they are giving up for Lent, which this year begins on Wednesday, February 14.

Last year, food items were three times as popular to abstain from as technology items or personal habits, according to 73,334 tweets analyzed by OpenBible.info’s Stephen Smith during the week of Ash Wednesday 2017. Alcohol ranked No. 1 for the first time since his project began in 2009.

This year, the creator of the Twitter Lent Tracker “expected relationship-related tweets to run higher than usual” because Ash Wednesday coincides with Valentine’s Day. (Also, Easter coincides with April Fools’ Day.)

“Social networking topped the [2018] list, followed by Twitter, alcohol, chocolate, and swearing,” wrote Smith in his final analysis, based on 29,609 tweets (excluding retweets). “It was a fairly typical year, with the top 5 the same as last year (though in a different order) except for swearing, which came in at No. 6 last year, behind chips.”

Here is how the top 6 ideas of 2018 have trended over time:

OpenBible.info

The trend line of Twitter’s top 6 Lent ideas.

Smith was most curious last year about how high Donald Trump would rank among perennial favorites such as social networking, alcohol, and chocolate. The President ended up finishing No. 22 in 2017, up from No. 82 in 2016. In 2018, he finished No. 67.

Meanwhile, LifeWay Research offered a chance to compare Twitter’s serious vs. sarcastic sharers last year via its study on what Americans who observe the Lenten season before Easter say they actually give up.

Of note: 3 in 10 Americans with evangelical beliefs (28%) say they observe Lent; of these, 42 percent typically fast from a favorite food or beverage while 71 percent typically attend church services.

Catholics remain the most likely to observe Lent (61%), with 2 out of 3 fasting from a favorite food or beverage (64%).

Overall, 1 in 4 Americans observes Lent (24%), according to LifeWay. Most American observers fast from a favorite food or beverage (57%) vs. a bad habit (35%) or a favorite activity (23%).

Hispanics were the most likely ethnic group to observe Lent (36%), and were more likely than whites to abstain from a favorite activity (34% vs. 17%) or a bad habit (50% vs. 30%).

In 2014, Barna Group found that 17 percent of US adults planned to fast during Lent, including 63 percent of practicing Catholics and 16 percent of practicing Protestants. Most were giving up a food item, including chocolate (30%), meat (28%), soda (26%), or alcohol (24%).

Twitter’s top five Lenten choices have proven consistently popular since Smith began tracking Lent in 2009. In the list below of the final top 100 ideas of 2018, each link will show how that particular idea has trended over time.

For comparison, here are the top 100 ideas of 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014, as well as a word cloud of the top ideas of 2018:

Stephen Smith / OpenBible.info

Twitter’s Top 100 Ideas for Lent 2018

CT regularly reports on Lent, including three views on why bother celebrating Lent, the best books to read for Lent, Lent in Narnia, and the argument for lengthening Lent. CT editor-in-chief Mark Galli offered his thoughts on “giving up self discipline” for Lent.

Below is Smith’s final tally of the top 100 most-mentioned Lenten sacrifices (both serious and cynical) in 2018. (This list covers all tweets from February 11–17 that mention giving up something for Lent and, except as noted, excludes retweets.)

Top 100 Things Twitter Gave Up for Lent (based on 29,609 tweets)

Rank	Word	Count	Change from last year’s rank
1.	Social networking	1,329	+1
2.	Twitter	1,215	+2
3.	Alcohol	1,105	-2
4.	Chocolate	1,035	-1
5.	Swearing	549	+1
6.	Meat	531	+6
7.	Sweets	499	+3
8.	Soda	441	0
9.	Coffee	387	+2
10.	Fast food	380	-1
11.	Lent	373	+2
12.	Facebook	342	+9
13.	Sex	315	+6
14.	Bread	267	+2
15.	School	256	-8
16.	Chips	222	-11
17.	Snapchat	216	+34
18.	Beer	193	-3
19.	You	189	+1
20.	Men	189	+35
21.	Plastic	188	+122
22.	Sugar	185	-5
23.	Boys	165	+2
24.	Candy	162	+7
25.	Valentine’s Day	157	+130
26.	Work	145	-2
27.	College	145	-13
28.	Negativity	144	+32
29.	Instagram	143	+13
30.	Guns	141	+126
31.	Life	139	-13
32.	Marijuana	132	+1
33.	Junk food	130	-6
34.	Religion	130	-8
35.	Giving up things	112
36.	Starbucks	111	-2
37.	Red meat	108	+12
38.	Cheese	106	-6
39.	Catholicism	105	-4
40.	Pizza	104	-11
41.	Smoking	100	-11
42.	Love	100	+96
43.	Wine	93	-3
44.	Carbs	91	0
45.	Me	89	-7
46.	Fortnite	87
47.	Lying	84	+25
48.	Dairy	81	+13
49.	Homework	78	-21
50.	Rice	77	-7
51.	Booze	76	+12
52.	Fried food	75	-7
53.	Ice cream	74	-17
54.	Complaining	72	+14
55.	Cookies	69	-18
56.	Single use plastic	68	+100
57.	Shopping	68	-11
58.	People	66	-11
59.	Caffeine	65	+11
60.	Stuff	60	-10
61.	Masturbation	59	+3
62.	Liquor	58	-5
63.	F***boys	58	-24
64.	Takeout	57	-4
65.	Sobriety	57	-9
66.	Hope	57	-43
67.	Donald Trump	56	-46
68.	Procrastination	56	-13
69.	Virginity	55	-21
70.	McDonald’s	55	-8
71.	Hot Cheetos	55	-5
72.	French fries	53	-20
73.	Netflix	53	-8
74.	Fizzy drinks	49	+3
75.	Chick Fil A	48	+4
76.	Eating out	48	-10
77.	Makeup	47	-32
78.	Porn	47	+21
79.	Myself	45	-3
80.	Juuling	45
81.	Him	44	-7
82.	Pasta	44	-3
83.	Desserts	41	-14
84.	Food	40	-25
85.	Coke	40	-14
86.	Pork	39	+17
87.	Dating	38	+23
88.	Mass shootings	38
89.	Sleep	38	-16
90.	Breathing	37	-47
91.	Boba	37	+3
92.	Being single	36	+22
93.	Cake	36	-6
94.	My will to live	36	-36
95.	Pancakes	36	-15
96.	The presidency	35	-43
97.	Online shopping	32	-15
98.	Tea	31	+10
99.	Brexit	30	+27
100.	This	30	-5
101.	TV	30	-5

Top Categories

Rank	Category	Number of Tweets
1.	food	6,702
2.	technology	3,556
3.	habits	2,034
4.	smoking/drugs/alcohol	2,027
5.	relationship	1,339
6.	irony	946
7.	school/work	714
8.	sex	568
9.	religion	404
10.	politics	252
11.	generic	224
12.	possessions	155
13.	entertainment	149
14.	shopping	147
15.	health/hygiene	125
16.	money	94
17.	sports	53
18.	weather	21
19.	clothes	14