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2016 | THE YEAR ON TWITTER

By Jade Hayden

This year, a lot of shit happened. None of it was good. About one good thing happened on Twitter all year and that was Pokemon GO, and that wasn’t even that good because the app kept crashing and nobody even plays it anymore. Pokemon GO did not survive 2016. Donald Trump’s presidential campaign did though and he’s going to become the actual president next month. It’s great. 2016: what a time to be alive.

This year’s Twitter analytics revealed that people talked about Trump a lot. Which is understandable because Trump talks about Trump a lot and uses the World Wide Web and attacks on Hillary Clinton to distract us from the important things in life like Aleppo, nuclear war, and the fact that he doesn’t know how to use autocorrect.

But people on Twitter talked about other things too. Less horrific things, like the Rio Olympics, all of the great things the Repeal movement have achieved this year, and… That was it. They were the only good things. So many people died. A guy tweeting the word ‘lemonade’ in Spanish was the year’s most popular tweet. How did that happen? What does it mean? 2016 was horrible. Make it stop.

https://twitter.com/Rubiu5/status/767105707212677120

#Trump wins #USelection, establishes awful cabinet, befriends #Kanye, tweets some amount of crap

In 2016, Trump happened. This we all know. But in case you happened to have been residing under a rock or are impervious to social media, here’s what you missed – in all its unadulterated, upsetting glory.

In January, Trump did some Republican debates alongside the other 16 candidates vying for the Republican nomination. The next month, this – the single greatest 1.54 mins video to have ever existed – happened. It was great. The GOP lads got confused and walked at the wrong time. Classic. We all had a big laugh about it, until the rest of the year occurred and we realised that we should not have spent that time laughing, but preparing for the inevitable horrors that were about to come.

Also competing for the Republican nomination were Ted Cruz, Dr Ben Carson, and John Kasich. Cruz may have very well won the nomination it hadn’t have been for all of those murders. But hey, a billionaire, racist, misogynistic Apprentice host who has no formal experience in politics was a way better shout, clearly.

Trump secured the nomination in May to the absolute shock of nobody. He received the most Republican primary votes ever. It was a blow but the assumption that Hillary Clinton – a woman who has spent her whole life working in politics and doesn’t threaten to grab people by the pussy – would win the election remained. She had to win. What would the world be coming to if she didn’t? A load of complete and utter shit, that’s what.

In June, Clinton was leading in most national polls. In July, it was reported that FBI were investigating her emails and things started to shift. Trump began edging his way closer to victory. He started talking more and more about #CrookedHillary, promising more and more jobs to unemployed Americans, making more and more untrue and brash claims about Mexicans, Muslims, gay people, women, the Black Lives Matter movement. He announced Mike Pence as his running mate. It was disgusting.

Towards the end of the summer, Trump decided to not talk about his taxes ever. He said they were none of anyone’s business, but also that he had nothing to hide. He continued to focus on Clinton’s emails and tweet absolute nonsense. He kept gaining support.

Once the Presidential debates began, people were worried. But people were also pretty sure that Clinton had this in the bag. They were two of the most disliked Presidential candidates in the history of the United States, but at least Hillary was prepared, knew what she was talking about, and hadn’t been caught on tape making sexist, stomach churning comments about women. After this, people began withdrawing their endorsements. Trump was forced to apologise. 15 women alleged that they had been sexual assaulted by the Republican Presidential nominee.

Trump denied everything and then it was November. America voted and he became the President-elect of the United States, winning 306 electoral college votes to Clinton’s 232. Trump lost the popular vote which is a thing that hasn’t happened since the 1800s. Americans protested his victory. Americans are still protesting his victory. He complained about the protests, complained about SNL, appointed some terrible, terrible people to his cabinet, and met with Kanye West. He’s set to take over from Obama on January 20th. It doesn’t look like anyone wants to perform at his inauguration.

Still, Trump and the US election were only the second most talked about things on Twitter around the globe this year. Which is pretty interesting considering it was all anybody talked about. Here’s some tweets that best encapsulate the horrific activities of 2016’s TIME Person of the Year: Donald J Trump.

Britain set to leave the EU #Brexit 

Another event that showed us all just how wrong and warped our perceptions of general existence were was Brexit. On June 23rd, 52% of British people voted in favour of leaving the European Union after a campaign wrought with racism, hate, and lies dominated the media for months.

According to many Leave supporters, they hadn’t expected to actually win the vote and just wanted to prove a point about immigration, a lack of jobs, and how much they desperately wanted that extra £50m NHS funding that was being spent on EU status even though it wasn’t because Nigel Farage is a liar.

Following the vote, David Cameron resigned as Prime Minister leaving everyone in the UK with the horrific prospect of Boris Johnson become their new PM. Things seemed to be going that way until Johnson decided that he absolutely did not want to do that and became Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs instead. Theresa May took over and announced that Article 50 would be triggered in early 2017, starting in motion the UK’s removal from the EU.

When it seemed very likely that the Leave side were going to emerge victorious, ‘Northern Irish passport’ became a top Google search in the UK. The pound’s value dropped immensely. Marmite threatened to pull out of Britain. Jo Cox’s husband Brendan Cox raised over £1m for charities that his late wife had supported, and urged the people of Britain to fight against the hate that had killed her during the Brexit campaign.

2016: the year we lost everyone

David Bowie. Alan Rickman. Leonard Cohen. David Gest. Gene Wilder. Muhammad Ali. Prince. Frank Kelly. Terry Wogan.

The list goes on. And there’s only so much one can say about that list other than it’s been fairly shit reading about the deaths of musicians, actors, and general icons that may or may not shaped peoples’ lives, done incredible things in their careers, and maybe even changed the world just a little bit.

Some people wondered whether 2016 was broken. Others suggested that we turn it off and on again. Everyone else was just sad because we had lost some great people this year on top of all the other crap we’ve had to deal with. Here are some of their tweets.

Irish #generalelection happens #GE16

The beginning of this year saw the general election occur. This was eventful because it seemed like the people of Ireland wanted something different, and that a change was coming. When the votes were counted Fine Gael and Enda emerged victorious again, with Fianna Fail more than doubling the amount of seats they had in 2011.

#GE16 was the top domestic trending topic in Ireland this year, with the leaders debate being the most talked about programme. Remember when Micheal Martin dropped a piece of paper and Enda pointed at it? Hysterical. What a country we live in.

The general election did hold a few surprises though. Most notably Alan Kelly being hoisted up onto some fella’s shoulders and paraded around a room when it was confirmed he’d be getting a seat in the Dáil. He was happy while also looking really angry. People made a meme of it. It was a whole thing.

This election also proved to be fairly positive for the Independents who won 19 seats, and the record number 35 women who took a place in the chamber. Labour representation was knocked down to 7 seats, while Sinn Fein succeeded in securing 23. Renua got none and Lucinda Creighton resigned. Very few people were surprised.

https://twitter.com/JOEdotie/status/699355743292682244

https://twitter.com/bitnch/status/704074427961630720?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw

#Rio2016 is the most tweeted about event of the year

Over the Summer, the Olympics happened in Rio. Everyone around the world tweeted about the Olympics happening in Rio, so the Olympics in Rio become Twitter’s top global trending topic. This is nice because the Olympics are not a bad thing, like absolutely everything else that happened this year. Good for the Olympics.

Ireland won two medals at the Olympics, one by Annalise Murphy for sailing, and one by Paul and Gary O’Donovan for rowing. We did pretty well at some other sports too, probably. What we did not do pretty well at was avoiding ticket scandals as Pat Hickey was arrested in Rio for his involvement with the illegal resale of hundreds of tickets meant for the Olympic Council of Ireland.

Hickey denied doing anything wrong. It was reported in November that he had been loaned some money to make bail. He is currently back in Ireland, and says he is “delighted” to be home just in time for the holidays.

#Repealthe8th movement loses no momentum in 2016

Another year, another 12 women a day forced to travel to the UK for abortion services Ireland refuses to offer them. Those of us in favour of repealing the eighth amendment still haven’t been offered a referendum.

Instead this year what we got was a lot of tone policing, columnists claiming to represent the ‘middle ground,’ and the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland giving RTE a formal warning for not challenging Graham and Helen Linehan about their fatal foetal abnormality enough. We got a person being removed from the Citizens’ Assembly for being actively pro choice. We got anti choicers parading around town in clothing proclaiming that they love the eighth and everything it’s done for the Irish people. We got thousands more women exiled abroad.

But 2016 also saw great things happen for the Repeal campaign, most of which have been detailed here by Eoin Ó’Faogáin. We saw Anna Cosgrave’s Repeal project turn the streets of Ireland black for change. We saw the highest number of people ever march for choice in September. We saw two women travel, #choiceforxmas dominate Twitter, and countries all over the world stand in solidarity with our women and their inability to choose what is right for them.

#Repealthe8th was also the third most popular trending topic in Ireland this year, coming just after the 1916 commemorations.

https://twitter.com/Joe_Panama/status/812415845666328576

https://twitter.com/Oireachtas_RX/status/780801627838185473

https://twitter.com/Mark_cpp/status/803150229142994945

#HomeSweetHome group houses homeless people for Christmas

Irish people doing decent things and fighting for the good also dominated Twitter’s trending topics with the occupation of #ApolloHouse. In December, a group of “concerned citizens” including artists like Glen Hansard, Jim Sheridan, and Hozier took over vacant, Nama managed Apollo House in order to give Dublin’s homeless people a warm bed, hot water, and some comfort for the Christmas season. Hey, maybe this year wasn’t so abysmally terrible after all?

Donations have been pouring in for Home Sweet Home since the initiative was launched; so much so that the group have had to tell people to give to homeless charities instead. When it was reported that the government had plans to remove everyone from Apollo House and potentially demolish it, a concert was held in the street outside, drawing the attention of international news organisations like the New York Times and the BBC.

A judge recently ruled that those occupying Apollo House had to be out by January 11th, stating that they had had good intentions, but that “exceptional circumstances” would not be made for them. Home Sweet Home member Tommy Gavin said that the group would not give up, and that Ireland’s homeless problem could be resolved “by the stroke of a pen.”

#PokemonGO changes everybody’s lives, for about three weeks

Over the Summer, Pokemon GO became a thing. Not just a regular thing, but a serious thing that brought people together, tore families apart, and made everybody hate zubats. One could say that Pokemon GO revolutionised online gaming. It made people go outside, hang around Centras, and start talking about gyms way more than they ever would have before.

But then, just as suddenly as it arrived, it was gone. Not literally gone, but the vast majority of people stopped playing it after awhile because we all have the attention spans of squirrels and are constantly finding new things to get obsessed with, like donut shops or bubble tea.

But for those three weeks during Summer 2016, we were infinite.

Featured image sources: bbc.com, repeal.ie

Jade Hayden 144 posts 0 comments

Jade Hayden has an MA in journalism, a degree in English, and a house rabbit who sleeps in her bed sometimes. You'll often find her wearing glasses, fixing her fringe, and complaining about the amount of time she spends on public transport. Jade is also the editor of HeadStuff's topical section, and she'd love if you sent your submissions over to [email protected].

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