Twitter is a dangerous jungle, full of screeching, ravenous boy-band fans and trolls lying in wait for the right time to come out from under the bridge and into your mentions. It's also wildly popular and the place where most -- if not all -- news breaks on the Internet.
Twitter has done some digging and come up with what its Australian users tweeted about the most this year, and in doing so they've found that discussion about federal politics and 5 Seconds of Summer (5SOS) can indeed coexist.
The most retweeted tweet from an Australian for 2015 belongs to 5SOS guitarist Michael Clifford, who posted a photo of his roughed-up face after accidentally walking into a pyrotechnics display during a show.
What the fucks up. sorry I couldnt finish the encore, but at least I look like two face. thanks for worrying every1 x pic.twitter.com/wXh9eYUsbV— Michael Clifford (@Michael5SOS) June 13, 2015
The top hashtag trend belonged to the Australian politics hashtag #auspol, with #qanda for the ABC's panel discussion show Q&A coming in second, showing that Aussies have a real head for policy... we think.
Can't believe #abbottlovesanal is trending in Aus. Isn't #qanda in enough strife without adding #analgate to it. pic.twitter.com/C3CcUqGe0M— Kobi J A VanBennekom (@kobijv) August 24, 2015
pic.twitter.com/SFRTxtiLGY— dad the halls (@TerryAustralis) July 14, 2015
Following on from that, the Liberal Party spill that saw Tony Abbott replaced as prime minister by Malcolm Turnbull was the biggest Australian event for Twitter. It churned out 670,000 tweets on the topic on the day it happened.
netflix and chill or abc news 24 and spill— g the xmas grinch (@geo__tk) September 14, 2015
He may be gone (or at least delegated to the backbench), but his appetite for onions will not be forgotten.
Top story: Watch ABC News's Vine "Prime Minister Tony Abbott eats an onion, ski… https://t.co/gWq08hImdP, see more http://t.co/o0nGW25i7a— Peter Francis (@peterfra) March 13, 2015
The federal government's tough stance on refugees gave the Australian people cause to unite under the hashtag #RefugeesWelcome, offering messages of solidarity to people attempting to flee war and harsh circumstances. It was the fourth most-trending hashtag in Australia for the year.
#Melbourne you're doing us proud as you #LightTheDark to say #refugeeswelcome. Yes they are! #AylanKurdi #Syria pic.twitter.com/3NmfSUaC3b— Kon Karapanagiotidis (@Kon__K) September 7, 2015
With 2015 being the first year that Australia competed in the Eurovision song contest, former Australian Idol winner and our entrant Guy Sebastian's performance sent Twitter into overdrive and was the tenth most tweeted about event in the country.
TONIGHT THE WHOLE OF EUROPE UNITES pic.twitter.com/72mfXHyFYZ— petra (@yeezy4presidcnt) May 23, 2015
Teen crooner Cody Simpson is the most-followed Australian on Twitter this year, coming in at 7.59 million followers. He's closely followed by 5SOS' frontman Luke Hemmings, who has 6.67 million. There's never been a better time to be an attractive, Australian male performer on Twitter.
Mystic sun livin, this is livin! pic.twitter.com/V9z7vfwU32— Cody Simpson (@CodySimpson) November 29, 2015
The cardinal rule of Twitter may be to not tweet at all, but we're happy so many of us break that rule -- and do it so often. Here's to another year of hashtags, spelling errors, and people still struggling to get over the transition from stars to hearts.
We're still waiting on Australia's answer to Kanye West's Twitter, though.
not smiling makes me smile— KANYE WEST (@kanyewest) October 11, 2014