2013 Seen Through the Eyes of Facebook and Twitter Users

Dec. 12, 2013— -- From the birth of the Royal Baby to the passing of Nelson Mandela, social media users had plenty to talk about throughout 2013. Both Facebook and Twitter analyzed what people were talking about and revealed the top topics of the year.

Pope Francis wasn't just Time magazine's person of the year, but also Facebook's topic of the year. The new pope was the most talked about worldwide, with political elections coming in at number two and the Royal Baby at number three. Even an Internet meme cracked the top ten, with theHarlem Shake coming in at number six.

Life events also make up a large amount of Facebook chatter, and unsurprisingly, getting married or starting a new relationship was number one on that list. There weren't many surprises on that list, with other topics like traveling and breakups also ranking high.

Facebook users can visit the social network's Stories page to see a detailed breakdown at what happened in 2013. In addition, they can look back at their own lives by logging into Facebook's Year in Review.

Twitter skipped the personal year in review and stuck with the topics that trended worldwide. It also picked out not just the most talked about topics, but the most talked about tweets. The Golden Tweets of the year are those that get the most retweets and favorites. Each of this year's Golden Tweets received over 350,000 retweets.

In addition to finding the most popular tweets of the year, Twitter looks into the popular trends and topics in each month of 2013. It also partnered with other organizations like NASA, Fox News, and the Daily Show, and gave each a place to showcase what they thought were the year's top tweets. All of Twitter's picks can be found on its 2013 website.