"The man who is aware of himself is henceforward independent; and he is never bored, and life only too short, and he is steeped through and through with a profound yet temperate happiness." Virginia Woolf
Wake up! Marketers are studying your habits -- and you may as well be studying theirs...
Lists are a common marketing ploy to "trick you" into interacting with media content because they fit perfectly into our brain's preference for structure and efficiency -- what others refer to as mental shortcuts or "laziness."
In the interest of attention allocation and self-awareness, I've put together some reasons to avoid lists -- a list that, in a perfect world, would end all lists!
1. Prevent 'Attention Theft'
Advertisers and, more recently, bloggers use lists to steal your attention. Take a look at this list from a prominent blogger. Guess what the number one tactic in attention theft is? You guessed it... "Use Lists!" What is at the bottom of this particular list? Coming in at #56, is "Write stuff the people want to read and share." I could stop here but there are more reasons to stop reading lists...
2. You Don't Seek Lists. They Seek You...
When you logged onto the internet or opened your favorite periodical, were you really looking for the "Top 10 Ways to Motivate Geeks" or was the "Top Ten Ways To Prepare For Retirement" a closer match to your needs (or neither one)? I know that some media sources are often sought as a source of entertainment, rather than education, for the end-user (you). And that's OK. If you want to be entertained, then "distraction" may be just what you want; however, if your use of media is primarily to find useful information, then you should try to avoid catchy article titles -- especially lists -- unless you are intentionally looking for a list (then you can simply Google it)...
3. Lists are Listless
The majority of life and energy of lists is spent on the title -- beyond that, there's not much remaining. This goes back to reason #1: If the author/blogger can get you to read even a portion of the article/blog post, then they've succeeded in their primary objective. For self-serving bloggers, which is the vast majority, when a reader "shares" the blogger's post on a content-sharing site like Digg or del.icio.us the ultimate motive for creating the list has been achieved!
4. Lists Are Generally Generalizations
Lists are typically "one-size-fits-all", "throw things against the wall"-type generalizations. Unless it's a narrow subject, directed to a narrow audience, such as the "Top 10 Ways to Stay Safe in a Foreign Taxi", then it is unlikely you will find many points useful to your needs, if any at all.
5. How many lists do we need?
All lists pretty much say the same thing or have been said before. With a simple Google search, I received nearly 2 million results for the "top ten" lists on saving for retirement. Doing some quick math, that would be 20 million ways to save for retirement. Can all of them possibly be different? Does anyone really ever put the list points into action? Does anyone really read them? Apparently not -- otherwise we wouldn't see them repeated time after time after time...
6. Have it Your Way
There is only one way to do anything the right way -- Your way! Almost every list I've seen on "how to plan your day" suggests making a list of some kind -- NOT to read someone else's list!
7. Attention Allocation
I can not make this point better than Herbert Simon did over 30 years ago -- so here are his words:
"... in an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a dearth of something else: a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious: it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it."
8. So We'll Stop Seeing More Lists
This point is the least likely to occur but I thought I'd try it anyway: Stop reading lists! Only then will they at least slow down to a slightly less-distracting level...
10. Is This Over Yet?
I know I skipped number nine (and ten). Even though I believe my effort to end lists by creating a list was worthwhile, my brain is drained from trying to come up with 10 useful items; therefore, I'm doing us all a favor and stopping at eight! As a special "hat tip," I must say that, in my "top ten list" resarch, I ran across another list that is similar to mine (at least in title). If you're not pressed for time and you want more reasons to stop reading lists, here it is. I especially liked number ten on their list...
I enjoyed this, Kent. Added it to our "Features of the week" post.
Posted by: David | November 16, 2007 at 12:22 PM
IF, and that's a big IF, you can get folks to stop surfing and start reading and thinking, too, then you will see the demise of lists. Until then, lists are a quick and easy way to spoonfeed information to an eternally optimistic public. Good post, tho! G.
Posted by: Grace | August 26, 2008 at 12:40 AM
Grace:
As you likely detected, this post is a bit idealistic and (admittedly) a slightly tongue-in-cheek display of sarcasm directed at the overabundance of mindless blogs seeking to "steal attention" to increase their readership and site stats.
I do hope that a few people will be a bit more mindful of their media selection. Entertainment has its place but if it is information we seek, then distraction will take us further from it...
Thanks for the comment...
Kent
Posted by: The Financial Philosopher | August 26, 2008 at 10:22 AM