10 Things You Absolutely Have To Know About Listicles

Lists have successfully taken over the internet. Is it because the listicle taps into some deep pleasure centre of the mind? Are lists a form of literary crack?

1. A Click Bait Title

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Catchy. To the Point. Often the most crucial part of the Listicle, meant solely to GRAB YOUR ATTENTION. But wait, you guys already know that seeing as you're here :p

2. Easy to Write

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So why have they suddenly taken over the Internet? First things first, they're super easy to write. You don't really need to bother to arrange points in any sequence or have any glue keeping it all together

3. Useful to read (Sometimes)

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When you're short on time and need to find out something quick, these are right up your alley. With no cumbersome subject matter to have to look through, you get what you need in no time at all. Coupled with the fact that they can be on just about anything, it can be a useful tool for readers

4. Dropping Attention Span

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With the rise of the internet age one thing is certain, soon we will all have seen more pictures of cats than people and the average attention span of a human is roughly that of Dory. And Listicles are seductive in that they condense any subject into short factoids. Also another drawing point is you always know how much longer it's gonna take. A listicle keeps helpfully informing you how much of it there is left. You're pretty much halfway there!! Keep going!! :D

5. Next Point

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This is usually around the point where you reach a slide where the author has absolutely nothing to say but has to make up the middle numbers before the big finish

So let's put it out there I'm afraid I lied and this is kinda redundant. At least I gave you a Darth Vader-John Travolta GIF for your trouble. Let's all move on shall we?

6. Ads and Revenues

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So we've seen why it's good from the reader and writer perspectives, what about the websites? Well because content is corralled into a succinct small space, that leaves plenty of space for ads. Just have a look around there's probably 2 or 3 right now :P

And in case you didn't know, ads = $$ for websites

7. Social Media

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The boom in number of Lists online coincided with the rise in social media. And this comes as a surprise to no one but with fancy gifs and colourful images listicles are among the most shared items online. I mean when was the last time you logged onto Facebook and didn't see one of these lists there.

8. Further linking

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Usually the last slide of a list will end up being a link to another similar list. More clicks, more lists, more money for them.

9. They're here to stay

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The very fact that you actually scrolled all the way here means that lists are going to be here forever. I mean of you think about it they've literally stood the test of time and this Listicle is the literary successor of the long line dating all the way back from when God gave Moses 10 commandments to distribute. So might as well get on board right?

PS Note how I'm keeping up the recent trend of ending the list on an intriguingly random number and not a neat 10.