Simon Cox Blog: What to Give Up for Lent 2018? Consider Twitter’s Top 100 Ideas

Sunday, 11 February 2018

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

Last year, Trump ranked between Facebook and hope.

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

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

Last year, the creator of the Twitter Lent Tracker was most curious 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.

LifeWay Research offered a chance to compare Twitter’s serious vs. sarcastic sharers via its 2017 study on what Americans who observe Lent say they actually give up.

Almost 3 in 10 Americans with evangelical beliefs (28%) observe the Lenten season before Easter, according to LifeWay. Catholics remain most likely to do so (61%).

Overall, Twitter’s top five Lenten choices have proven consistently popular since Smith began tracking Lent in 2009.

He also charts trends over time, such as this attempt to track the “seven deadly sins”:

For comparison, here are the top 100 ideas of 2017, 2016, 2015, and 2014, as well as charts on trends over time.

Below is Smith’s running tally of the top 100 most-mentioned Lenten sacrifices (both serious and cynical) in 2018. (This list will eventually cover all tweets from February 11–16 that mention giving up something for Lent and, except as noted, excludes retweets.)