8 reasons lists are the worst form of content
List articles are ruining online writing, this author says. With no irony intended, here is his list of reasons why we have to stop this content-marketing atrocity before it goes any further.
We live in the age of the list.
We’re processing thoughtful reporting and intelligent discussion into bite-sized chunks of information with the intellectual value of a Chicken McNuggets meal.
BuzzFeed and its imitators have made lists the most successful content form on the Internet, to the point that list articles are rapidly replacing Web journalism as the No. 1 source of knowledge distribution.
In a last-ditch effort to halt lists’ domination, I’m commandeering the format to explain why lists are a blight on humanity.
With no irony intended, here are eight reasons I hate lists:
1. They’re everywhere. A quick Google search for “Internet lists” turns up around 674 million results, with the top hits including lists about lists: “Best and worst lists,” “The 7 types of Internet lists,” etc. I refer to this phenomenon as list-ception. If we go any deeper, we’ll end up in limbo.
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