Facebook users share what’s on their mind: the top trends for 2009
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.The top US Facebook status update trends of 2009 include application names, FML ("F*** My Life"), swine flu and celebrity deaths.
References to family members, movies, sports, health care, Twitter, Lady Gaga and religion also ranked among the most commonly seen trends in Facebook status updates in 2009.
On December 21 Facebook introduced "Facebook Memology," their study of how memes are spread through Facebook's community of social networkers. Facebook Memology ranks the most commonly used phrases or words in people's status updates in 2009 and compares them to the trends seen in 2008.
"To generate the list, we started by looking at how many times each phrase with length from one-to-four words occurred in U.S. Facebook status updates, then we computed the rate at which each phrase occurred in 2009 compared to 2008," wrote Lars Backstrom, a data scientist at Facebook, on December 21 on the official Facebook blog.
Top Status Trends of 2009:
1. Facebook Applications
Specific words: Farmville, Farm Town, Social Living
2. FML
Specific word: FML
3. Swine Flu
Specific words: Flu, Swine Flu, H1N1
4. Celebrity Deaths
Specific words: Michael Jackson, Patrick Swayze, Billy Mays
5. Family
Specific words: Family, Mom, Dad, Son, Daughter, Kids
6. Movies
Specific words: New Moon, Transformers, Star Trek, The Hangover, Paranormal Activity and Harry Potter
7. Sports
Specific words: Steelers, Yankees
8. Health Care
Specific words: Health Care, No one should have to...
9. FB
Specific words: FB, FB Friends, News Feed
10. Twitter
Specific words: Twitter, RT
11. Years
Specific words: 2008, 2009, 2010
12. Lady Gaga
Specific words: Gaga, Poker Face
13. Yard
Specific word: Yard
14. Religion
Specific words: Easter, Lord, God
15. I
Specific words: I, is
For a detailed explanation of each of the terms head to: http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=215076352130
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments