You may have noticed that an increasing number of online content providers publish a lot of what are called listicles. These are, as you may have surmised, articles in the form of lists. The listicle is largely a 2010s phenomenon. Before the beginning of this decade they were rare; now they’re more or less ubiquitous. In reading hundreds of them over the years, I’ve formulated some criticisms.
- They make you think that every issue in life can be broken down in six simple steps. In the same way that watching sitcoms as a kid made you think every problem could be solved in thirty minutes, listicles make you think that any obstacle can be conquered, any skill mastered, any point made, all in six steps. This would be fantastic if it were true, but alas it is not. The world is full of gray. Complex, multi-hued gray that refuses any and all quantification. Sometimes it takes 17 steps, or 32 steps or 2111453 steps.
- They assume that everyone’s point of view is the same as the author. “5 Reasons Waiting in Line at Chipotle is the Worst.” Oh yeah? Maybe I met my significant other partner while in line at Chipotle. So I think waiting in line there is the best! OK, that’s a weak example but you get the idea.
- There’s always one entry that says basically nothing.
- They often tell you what you think. I don’t want to be told what I like. I know what I like. Telling me I like something is likely to make me dislike it on principle. I would much rather just be given the facts, or at least the author’s perspective on the subject, and left to form my own conclusion. Coincidentally, you feel the same way.
- 80% of the time there will be a statistic that has no reference, meaning that it could be true or it could be a figment of the author’s imagination. The exact number of invented stats is not known but is believed to be around 40%, of which 19% of these would be true except that they are poorly worded. Of the latter 7% use the word “stan.”
- A dismaying number of listicles are drawn from Reddit threads. I subscribe to Ask Reddit; half the time when I see such a list, I’ve already read it, unedited and without the stock photos. And instead of six or ten or 15 examples, there are hundreds. It suggests a certain laziness, or at least a lack of inspiration. A while back I wrote an article advising aspiring writers to “just write.” Part of the challenge every writer faces is separating the good ideas from the poor ones. Sometimes you lose your objectivity and need an outside opinion. That’s fine. But keep on mining for original ideas. I believe you’ll derive much more satisfaction from something original than you will from a retread of someone else’s idea. Instead of creating cheap content, why not dig deeper for something with a little more substance to it?
In short, if you want to mindlessly generate content that will be perused by the masses and immediately forgotten, the listicle might just be the right format for you. Now I’m wondering why I formatted this one as a listicle…🤔
