Facebook’s data team recently posted some information about the most popular words and terms used in Facebook status updates in 2009.
In short, they took all the status updates and analyzed the phrases that used the same words or combinations of words. They divided them into categories by length of the phrase, and then they counted how many times the same length of phrases occurred. For a more explanatory way of how they came up with the top terms see the post: CLICK HERE.
The findings.
15. I- This should really be no surprise. However, I’m a little surprised that it wasn’t listed as number one. Facebook feeds the narcissist’s soul and allows ample room for them to talk about themselves. However, I think in general people have used the word “I” less due to the format change in Facebook status updates. For example, instead of me having to say “I am skiing,” the form switched to 3rd person and now says “Laura Burrus is skiing.”
14. Religion- According to the Facebook data team findings- religious terms have increased. There’s always a spike on holidays like Easter, Christmas and Thanksgiving. The increase in religious terms might have to do with the fact that older users are using Facebook, which the data team assumes is because older users are more likely to go to Church than younger users.
13. Yard- random word for 2009. The data team thinks it might have to do something with older users on Facebook.
12. Lady Gaga- She was the only celebrity to have her own rank.
11. 2009/2010- Dates in general because people use them in their status updates.
10. Twitter- Facebook users are also tweeting and because of apps that allow your twitter posts to automatically feed into your Facebook status, it’s no wonder that Twitter made this list.
9. FB- Big spikes were seen, using this term, when Facebook made changes to the site.
8. Health Care- seems to be something that is on a lot of people’s minds this year. Biggest spikes were in September, October and November.
7. Sports- Need I say more? Always a rivalry to talk trash about. Not that I’ve every done anything of the sort…WRECK ‘EM, Tech. ?
6. Movies- New Moon had the most updates. Next in line was Harry Potter, Transformers, and Star Trek.
5. Family- The data team says this is related to the older generations updating their statuses. Older generations tend to talk more about their families.
4. Celebrity Deaths- Most talked about was Michael Jackson.
3. Swine Flu- The greatest spike was in May and has since then calmed down some.
2. FML- This term has broadened its meaning to be more of a term used to express frustration. I’ll leave the F to your imagination, but the M and L are My Life.
1. FB Apps- Farming (because of Farmville) was the most talked about app in status updates. The data team says their data does not include the automatic posts created by the FB apps, but only includes updates created via the status update box, mobile devices and Twitter. Not sure what this says about people using Facebook. They must have a lot of time on their hands to keep their gardens watered and the cows fed.
Photo By: Benstein
December 29th, 2009 at 8:14 pm
I'm also stunned by the number of people playing Farmville. I'd be very interested to see demographic info on the players, but in my freind group, a surprising number of over 40's are playing it a lot. And, as far as I know, most of them have real jobs and lives offline, so I don't know how they manage to do it. Either they're really good at time management, or have really bad priorities!
December 29th, 2009 at 8:36 pm
I agree..I don't play Farmville..but have been invited multiple times to play…all from, shall I dare say say, "older" facebook users. I wonder if I can find out what the demographics are. I'll check into it.
December 31st, 2009 at 2:20 pm
Well if it's older FB users, I need to get a new group of friends. Seriously who has that much time? But what I want is a combination of farmville and mafia. I want to get some really cool weapons to go take over a farm and have a corrupt chicken factory.
January 14th, 2010 at 5:10 am
Hey, great site!. How do I subscribe to your RSS feed to ensure I get notifed when you make new posts? Thank you
January 22nd, 2010 at 2:09 pm
What is a "POKE"
January 25th, 2010 at 4:40 pm
A poke is a feature of Facebook that allows you to click a button that says "poke" and you virtually "poke" another Facebook user….for whatever purpose you want to poke someone….to get their attention…to be annoying…just because…etc.
February 3rd, 2010 at 5:16 pm
I read this a while ago on Wikipedia about Pokes. I thought it was good info:
The poke feature is intended to be a "nudge" to attract the attention of another user. Whether poking someone is inappropriate is pretty much impossible to know. Many facebook users use this feature to attract attention or say "hello" to their friends.[16] A previous version of Facebook's FAQ gave additional insight into the origin of the feature, stating: "When we created the poke, we thought it would be cool to have a feature without any specific purpose. People interpret the poke in many different ways, and we encourage you to come up with your own meanings."
There are several applications on Facebook which extend the idea of the poke feature by allowing users to perform other actions to their friends (such as "kick" or "wave to"). People often reciprocate pokes back and forth until one side gives up, an event known as a "Poke War"