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