Listicle

ANSHUMAN PATI

“Writing is easy. All you have to do is cross out the wrong words.” - Mark Twain

Mark Twain was right. The right words positioned in the right place, said in the right mood can work wonders. There is a new concept of how social media platforms are now presenting facts and other news. This new concept is called Listicles.

Listicle is more of a summary with limited amount of words and information which is made available to the reader. These are normally used to present series of facts, quotations, tips or examples revolving around a particular theme. It is the perfect blend between a list and an article.

Why listicle is now taking over social media?

This question keeps popping up every time BuzzFeed puts a very tacky and eye catching list of something completely unusual in this world. Take for example, you just opened Facebook and someone shared a link stating, “19 School Power point Presentations That Give Zero Fucks” by BuzzFeed , now what will you do. Well curiosity always kills the cat and we always end up opening the link. That is the whole point of a listicle. Attract readers with a tacky or catchy headline and give only necessary information but be more pictorial in the way of presenting it.

Pros of Listicles: (How they are changing the face of Journalism)

• News snacking

In this fast moving world, nobody has the time to read through full 28 pages of Times of India, that’s where listicles make their impact. Using their condensed information format and online virility, they attract all these “news snackers” who want to be updated with the world but can’t devote enough time to reading.

• Suiting the life style of the audience

Listicle targets the younger generation who have shorter attention span and need easily scan-read information that's also easily shareable across social media. Ross Hawkes, senior lecturer in journalism at Birmingham City University gives his opinion stating that, "it's not so much about attention span but the lifestyle of the audience".

• A picture depicts more emotions than words

A concept which was once invented by BuzzFeed is now being implemented elsewhere. Using of pictures and an eye catching headline that’s all it takes to capture the attention of the readers. Their concept is simple reduce the time taken to read an article but put in more visual aids for the person to be interested all throughout that time.

Take for example this listicle:

  Courtesy: www.facebook//Black Sails

They were the finalists in THE 6TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS for the THE BEST LISTICLE.

• The simplicity they provide

Listicles, assure one thing to the readers that the author has read through almost all the crap that is out there to read and has now arranged these 10 most important things that reader must know about. Rest is immaterial.

Cons of Listicles:

• Big setback for intensive reading

People get so used to the idea of reading only bullet points and the headings that they now stop venturing into reading the meat of the writers work.

• Rapidly Overshadowing Journalism

It just takes one click, moving of like some muscles of your finger to share a listicle on a social media platform on Facebook and that then can be viewed by so many. Whereas the standard methods of journalism take so much more effort and are time consuming. Keeping this in mind why would a reader take in so much effort when he can just read a post shared by his peer. Listicles are fun and give a good laugh but audience don’t obtain any information or current events through Facebook from their peers.

See the irony the person who posted the cons of Listicle had to put it in the form of listicle for people to have a glance at it.

• Writers don’t find anymore inspiration

Picture yourself as a writer; now put yourself in today’s scenario, where everyone is now reading listicles the sales of novels and books start reducing. How will you get inspired? What topic will you concentrate on when a 10 minute read can give the reader enough information? Writers start losing their touch when their own fan base is now hooked onto something else. They start putting less effort into their works. We all are running behind fame and success but it just becomes harder when you are losing the attention of those people who once used to love your style of writing and work. Listicles are nice, but let’s tone it down and give other writers and styles attention as well.

• People start avoiding details

Why study something deeply when you can get a jist of something. Every ones mind-set is like that. Read a listicle you get known to certain facts or news but you only have a slight idea. And we give up there itself. Our efforts stop right there and we don’t read anymore. This is where we guys are promoting the idea that someone can understand a whole topic just by reading bullet points and his/her understanding is just as well as someone who reads it in its entirety and decides for him or herself whether the information is credible and makes sense. Do you realize what this might have an impact on the future generations?

• We are not teaching anyone

Just giving a summary is not teaching. A person who is proud about reading all the listicles will not be called a well- educated individual but one who is well aware of his surroundings and that is not enough in this world of competition.

So let’s not get carried away by the idea of listicles and make it the only way of journalism. Yes, BuzzFeed and other companies are amazingly putting forth for us news and stuff which baffles us every time we go through it but we should realize that incomplete knowledge is way more harmful than not knowing about the situation in the first place. We should understand the difference between what we should know in detail and the content that is only good for entertainment purposes. Enjoy listicles, share them as well, but also take the time to read the denser articles and share pieces that took hours of research and passion to make. Find a balance between the negatives and positives that will give you enough laughs while reading a listicle.