The death of Osama bin Laden, the Super Bowl and the trial and acquittal of accused child-murderer Casey Anthony were the most-discussed topics in the world on Facebook this year, according to new data released by the social-network.
Facebook released its annual “Memeology” report this week, illustrating what topics, trends and celebrities earned the most attention.
“With more than 800 million people connected around the globe on Facebook, news about the world’s triumphs and tragedies spreads fast,” wrote report author Jonathan Chang.
A “meme” is a recurring cultural phenomenon; in Facebook’s case, it refers to topics, words or actions that are widely shared via the Internet.
UK Facebook trends
In the UK, The Royal Wedding topped the Facebook status trends in the UK in the year 2011, the social networking site revealed.
The Royal Wedding weekend saw more than a million people in the UK using Facebook statuses to discuss it.
It was followed by the UK riots and ‘The Only Way is Essex (TOWIE)’ at number two and three positions respectively.
Facebook turned out to be a popular platform for communities to organise themselves for clean-up operations after the UK riots.
The popular TV show TOWIE was followed by the death of Amy Winehouse, death of Osama Bin Laden and death of Muammar Gaddafi.
The video game ‘Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3’ had a large following among UK Facebook users as it stood ninth on the list.
Others in the top ten UK Facebook trends were Jessie J¸ Ed Sheeran and Reem (a new word made popular by TOWIE meaning ‘gorgeous’).
The Facebook 2011 trends report includes both a chart of worldwide trends and trends in individual countries.
