Editor’s note: Our Marketing intern John set himself a challenge; to write 2 opinion pieces about “listicles”…in listicle form. One would be positive, and the other negative.
Below are John’s arguments against listicles. (We’ll follow up with his argument for listicles later in the week). I hope you will join the debate!
First off, if you are unfamiliar with listicles, go over to Buzzfeed and click on any one of their “articles” like, 23 Problems Only Anxious Parents Will Understand or 24 Signs Your Life Revolves Around Snacks.
Here is my personal pessimistic take on this trend. If you’re a lover of listicles though—don’t fret—I tried to be fair. An optimistic companion to this article will be coming later this week.
1. Listicles Are Ruining Our Attention Spans
I highly doubt that many of the devout listicle disciples would be able to stomach a full length feature on most other “traditional” news sites, citing their lack of funny gifs and hilarious one-liners as too much of a bore to read all the way through.
2. Listicles Oversimplify
You can’t boil down international conflict to 5 or 6 pictures and a few sentences. You just can’t. Many of newsworthy events of today are muddled, with different viewpoints and conflicting sides that must be explored thoroughly by reporters. This kind of careful analysis just isn’t compatible with the listicle format.
3. Listicles Disregard Prose
There was a time in literature when prose was a point of pride for writers young and old. It was a signature style that shaped their work, providing a personal voice to their writing. Listicles brazenly disregard this pillar of literature, opting for a numbered lists and pictures.
4. Listicles Are a Cop Out
Most of these listicles are the literary equivalent to a DiGiorno microwave pizza. A quick 3 minutes in the microwave, they are ready to spread to the masses.
5. Listicles Rely on Clickbait to Get Most of Their Traffic
The whole point of Buzzfeed’s listicle titles is to trap their viewers in a never ending loop of related sensationalist titles. This helps them to continue to suck in large amounts of cash from sponsors who realize that if they post their ad on the site, it will be constantly viewed as readers cycle through inane lists.
Essentially Buzzfeed and other such listicle driven entities have done what tabloids did a few decades ago. They exploit the fascinations of their target audience by creating vapid content, tailor-made for a public that wants to be spoon-fed its information.
Building a “news” entity that solely posts low hanging fruit is lazy, and serves little (or no) public benefit.
That is not to say that this style of “writing” has no place on the internet. The internet is the Wild West of viral videos and animals doing ridiculous things, after all. But I do think there should be concern when these types of “articles” become the norm.
Do you agree with John’s negative arguments against listicles?
John Stewart is a Marketing Intern for WP Engine. He is a Communication Studies major with a minor in English at TCU and is a rock climbing and music enthusiast.
Well said, John. The terrifying thing about the likes of Buzzfeed and Upworthy is that so many people take their dumbing-down of serious issues seriously. One can only hope that this is a temporary phenomenon and that the fad will pass. And there is cause for optimism. Buzzfeed has just hired Australian journalist Christine Keneally for its global investigative unit and she’ll report to Mark Schoofs, a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter with the Wall Street Journal. With luck and good hires, some of the viral sites will evolve beyond the listicle.
Right on Eamonn. It’s good to hear that some journalistic heavy weights are joining their team. Imagine if they could figure out the formula for making in-depth analysis go viral. -John
Number two is the biggest problem. Of course, listicles are popular because many of us want simple answers.
Haha, read both your articles – they’re good. I am very curious in knowing what the results are? Which list(art)icle got more pageviews / shares – the positive one or the negative one? Would make for a decent case study.