Ask Letterman … What's Not to Love About a List?

Lists

Have you noticed how much of our information has become lists — TV, magazines, the interwebs love lists? The ten most amazing, most marvelous, most something this or that . . . is ingrained in every media. Even children’s learn-to-read books have started to favor lists. David Letterman has the best of them … click the image to check them out.

Here’s a list that lists why lists have taken center stage in the world of content.

• Lists are easy to build.
• They don’t require segues or transitional phrasing.
• They don’t require deep research or extensive fact checking.
• Most lists match the average attention span of a bus ride, coffee break, or other infosnack.
• Lists can be built in a fraction of the time a piece of depth might take.
• Lists are very bottom-line oriented.
• A quality list is . . . what you see is what you get.

Lists are the sound bytes of print. They’re easy, quick, and often useful. The writer makes a point and readers move on feeling satisfied that they’ve heard something complete and whole — without too much work.

What’s not to love about that? Hmmmmm.

–ME “Liz” Strauss
Work with Liz!!