Facebook’s ‘data scientists’ have been hard at work recently compiling their second annual memology (apparently a new word describing the study of how memes, or new trends and ideas, spread on Facebook) report and have recently announced the top ten terms that were used in status updates this year! Crucial news.
Incredibly, the number one term in status updates was HMU. HMU? What the hell is that? It’s an abbreviation for Hit Me Up, duh! If you don’t know what Hit Me Up means, it’s a way of letting everyone know you’re available to hang out. So basically Facebook statuses are being used to organise hanging out sessions. Here’s a bunch of people that typed HMU into their status last summer, hanging out having a great time:
Despite barely being used at all in 2009, the ‘data scientists’ explained that the term grew in usage by 75% each month in the year 2010, peaking at over 80,000 usages in the summer. There was a sharp decline in September though, with the phrase being limited mainly to weekends. The ‘data scientists’ concluded that this was because teenage Facebook users had gone back to school and were only available to be ‘hit up’ at the weekends. Facebook isn’t paying these guys enough.
FML, another commonly used abbreviation (FUCK MY LIFE) and the 4th most used phrase in status updates in 2009, has dropped off the list. I guess more advanced ‘data scientists’ might come to the conclusion that Facebook users are a lot happier than they were last year because of this. Maybe there’s a direct correlation between the fall of FML and the rise of HMU? Are Facebook users perhaps happier because of all the hanging out they’re now doing? The argument that teens are spending too much time on the internet could also be dispelled by this information. Or maybe they all just have smartphones now so they can spend time hanging out whilst also updating their statuses? They can probably even hang out and get more people to HTU (hit THEM up, geddit?) whilst doing it. That’s awesome.
Or perhaps Facebook is just releasing this information to dispel this myth that the internet is ruining people’s real lives? I had never heard of this phrase before so decided to test it out yesterday on my status and nobody said anything to me. Is this an indicator of the phrase’s effectiveness? Probably not, it’s more likely just an indicator of my current lack of friends/lack of hip young friends who actually know what HMU stands for.
Other terms that made the top ten list on the memology report were World Cup, the Chilean miners or mineros, Toy Story 3, and, predictably, Justin Bieber. Apparently, even he needs to write HMU sometimes.
