Top 400 Livejournal Interests

Livejournal.com is the premiere source online for reading about people’s day at the mall, links taken from Fark, and seeing what Final Fantasy VI character total strangers are.  Though each Livejournal is a personal record, they are not simply an island unto themselves, oh no.  One of the features that allows Livejournal uses to create a greater sense of community are the interest groups.  Users list interests in their profile and are able to see 57,000 other people who also like “friends.” 

In this article, we are going to investigate the top 400 interests listed by LiveJournal users. The top ten are achingly predictable: music, movies, writing, reading, computers, friends, art, dancing, poetry, and photography.  Booorrrring.  We're going to have to plumb deeper into this list if we are to find anything truly  representative of these people's personality.

First, we’ll analyze the essentials. Water clocked in at a respectable 70, with food taking spot 30. Blood pulled in 6616 votes 225th place.  Air didn’t register at all along with light and the sun. Sleep was seen at 51, but I’d dispute that fact seeing as the internet was 52. Life showed up at number 91, with death trailing at 143.

Music came in first place, but you can’t expect people to just leave it at that.  Musical styles run from punk (21) to 80’s music (369).  Specific bands ranged from Weezer (22) to Avril Lavigne (400).  Some very indecisive people simply listed “bands” (375). Beethoven didn’t make the cut, but N’SYNC asserted their dominance at 337.

Colors were common interests, though one wonders how much news and information you can get about a color. Entries included blue(142), purple (174), silver (229), red (241), green (311),and  pink(116), though the last one was significantly aided by the fact it’s also the name of a popular musician.  In the battle of the hues, black won at spot 79, with white not even making it into the top 400.

Some obvious rivalries developed between interests. Animals (48) polled higher than people (123), and comedy (209) topped drama (224). Cats (18) trounced dogs (56), and kitties (244) did the same with puppies (377). Kisses (198) wasn’t enough to topple hugs (96), and summer beats both winter (264) and autumn (366). Crying (351) is hot on the heels of smiling (333), and video games (40) placed significantly higher than computer games (348).  Some rivalries were so lopsided that one interest didn’t even make the cut.  Darkness (302) found itself unrivaled by light. Ignorance was missing in action, as opposed to its rival intelligence (321), and fantasy (69) is emerged victorious against the un-attending reality. Fun (191) predictably beats boredom, as does money (106) versus poverty, but pain (318) pulls off an unlikely upset against the no-show pleasure.

Some less likely rivalries were revealed in the results. Alcohol (175) doesn’t quite have the popularity of drinking (100), chatting (121) still has a ways to go before passing talking (46), and "my friends" (295) just can’t compete with "friends" (6). In popular culture, The Simpsons (68) holds a commanding lead over Simpsons (234), Beatles (383) lag woefully behind The Beatles (88), and Buffy the Vampire Slayer (250) holds onto a lead against Buffy (269). Goth (122) out-goths gothic (291), and faeries (189) out-faerie fairies (353).  (291) Women (32) had the upper hand versus girls (35), and boys (24) come out on top versus guys (27) and men (73).

God (155) makes a nice showing, but still falls prey to his old rival Invader Zim (154). Jesus clocks in at 347, narrowly edging out paganism at 359, but finds himself losing to nail polish by one place at 346.  Wicca (172) is the only other specific religion to be mentioned, leaving Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Shinto, Jainism, Confucianism and Taoism in the dust. Religion as a whole came in at 204, beating RPGs (205) by the slimmest of margins.