120 things that were really big on Facebook in 2012

Yup, it’s that time of the year again. The big tech players have started releasing their year in review specials, in the apparent belief that nothing interesting will happen in the next couple of weeks. Twitter and Google have already released theirs, with Facebook the latest to join in.

The year’s been pretty big for the social network itself. In May it went public, with its founder Mark Zuckerberg getting married shortly after. Interestingly the first is fairly low down on its top events for the year, while the latter doesn’t crack the list at all.

In tech, conversation was dominated by Instagram, Pinterest and the roll out of Timeline — another big milestone for the social network this year.

The biggest memes meanwhile belonged to TBH (to be honest) YOLO (You only live once) and Kony.

It should however be noted that these trends are all US-based. While Facebook does allow you to see trends from other countries around the world, it doesn’t give an overarching view of what happened globally. Even the reports for other countries provide much more of a snap shot than is given to the US. That’s a little surprising given the social network’s global one-billion plus strong user base.

You can also check out your own year in review. The memories might make you smile, but you might also find yourself wondering what the hell you were doing when you liked some of the pages you did.

Events

• US Presidential Election
• Superbowl XLVI
• Death of Whitney Houston
• Superstorm Sandy
• London 2012 Olympics
• Death of Trayvon Martin
• Facebook IPO
• Aurora Shootings
• Death of Dick Clark
• Obama’s Endorsement of Gay Marriage

Songs

• We Are Young (feat. Janelle Monáe) – Fun
• Somebody That I Used to Know – Gotye
• Call Me Maybe – Carly Rae Jepsen
• What Makes You Beautiful – One Direction
• Payphone – Maroon 5
• Mercy – Kanye West
• Some Nights – Fun
• Home – Phillip Phillips
• Boyfriend – Justin Bieber
• Take Care (feat. Rihanna) – Drake

Movies

• The Hunger Games
• The Avengers
• Magic Mike
• The Vow
• Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 2
• 21 Jump Street
• The Dark Knight Rises
• Dr. Seuss’ The Lorax
• Skyfall
• Prometheus

Check-Ins

• Times Square, New York
• Disneyland, California
• AT&T Park, California
• Yankee Stadium, New York
• Rangers Ballpark, Texas
• Fenway Park, Massachusetts
• Dodger Stadium, California
• Universal Studios, Florida
• Wrigley Field, Illinois
• Angel Stadium, California

Public Figures

• Barack Obama
• Mitt Romney
• One Direction
• Tim Tebow
• Eli Manning and Peyton Manning (tie)
• Madonna
• Honey Boo Boo
• Jeremy Lin
• Paul Ryan
• Phillip Phillips

Books

• The Hunger Games (The Hunger Games, #1) – Suzanne Collins
• Catching Fire (The Hunger Games, #2) – Suzanne Collins
• Mockingjay (The Hunger Games, #3) – Suzanne Collins
• Fifty Shades of Grey (Fifty Shades, #1) -E.L. James
• Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (Harry Potter, #1) – J.K. Rowling
• The Help – Kathryn Stockett
• Twilight (Twilight, #1) – Stephenie Meyer
• To Kill a Mockingbird – Harper Lee
• The Great Gatsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
• Water for Elephants – Sara Gruen

Technology

• Instagram
• Timeline
• Pinterest
• Draw Something
• iPhone 5
• Kindle Fire
• SOPA
• News Feed
• Siri
• SongPop

Politics

• Barack Obama
• Mitt Romney
• Voted
• Four More Years
• Paul Ryan
• Rick Santorum
• Gay Marriage
• Obamacare
• The Polls
• DNC

Television

• Duck Dynasty
• Honey Boo Boo
• Big Bang Theory
• Game of Thrones
• Downton Abbey
• Breaking Amish
• Ink Master
• Long Island Medium
• Wife Swap
• Two Broke Girls

Sports

• NY Giants
• New England Patriots
• Tim Tebow
• London 2012 Olympics
• OKC (Oklahoma City Thunder)
• Denver Broncos
• San Francisco 49ers
• Eli and Peyton Manning
• Jeremy Lin
• Los Angeles Clippers

Memes

• TBH (to be honest)
• YOLO (you only live once)
• KONY
• One-word Comment
• Gangnam Style
• Cinnamon Challenge
• Cray
• SMH (shake my head)
• Big Bird
• Linsanity