iPhone News Updated

Justin Bieber, acronyms, Apple’s iPad and iPhone make Facebook’s status list

Justin Bieber, acronyms, Apple’s iPad and iPhone make Facebook’s status list

Hey Beebs, HMU!

For those who don’t keep abreast of digital vernacular, that says: “Hey, Justin Bieber, hit me up!

Phrases similar to that one were probably read thousands of times this year, as Facebook recently revealed that both the Canadian pop sensation and the acronym — which basically means let’s get in touch — were among the 2010 list of top trends in status updates.

With more than 500 million users, Facebook analysts have a lot of data at their fingertips, capable of offering a unique insight into popular trends.

Events that captured the world’s attention, such as the Haiti earthquake and the rescue of the Chilean miners also made their mark on the social networking site, as did the World Cup in South Africa — with as many as half of all status updates referring to the soccer competition while it was underway.

But more than anything, Facebook users were looking for someone to hang out with, the analysis suggests.

In 2009 HMU was nowhere near the radar, the analysis noted. “Only a few posts a day contained HMU, and half of them were probably typos,” the team of analysts said in a release.

But the trend started picking up about halfway through 2009 and snowballed in 2010, increasing about 75 per cent every month. By the end of summer, HMU was mentioned in status updates 80,000 each day.

Other list-makers included movies such as Twilight, Toy Story 3 and Inception, which were heavily discussed immediately following their release.

And the word “airplanes” found its way into the ninth spot.

As random as that one may seem, Facebook’s data team explained it away by attributing it to users who were quoting a line from the song “Airplanes” by B.o.B.

The analysis examined status updates across 236 countries and compared the occurrence rates of popular words and phrases in 2010 to rates in 2009.

“The results reflect the highs and lows of world events that started a global conversation, new uses of language online and the sharing of popular culture between friends,” the data team said.

1. HMU

2. World Cup

3. Movies

4. iPad and iPhone 4

5. Haiti

6. Justin Bieber

7. Games on Facebook

8. Mineros/Miners

9. Airplanes

10. 2011

Comments are closed.