The New Yorker Examines How Lists Became Our Defense Against Endless Slop

Key facts

• The listicle emerged in the early 2010s on websites like BuzzFeed and KnowledgeNuts with headlines such as '32 Pictures You Need To See Before You Die'.
• Short-form videos on TikTok and Instagram have supplanted listicles as the dominant passive entertainment, organized by virality and personal-viewing history.
• Umberto Eco in 2009 called lists 'the origin of culture,' serving to make infinity comprehensible and create order.
• William Gass in his 1996 essay 'I've Got a Little List' identified an obsession with hierarchies as a human trait.
• The New York Times published a list of the thirty greatest living American songwriters in April and the century's hundred best TV shows in September.
• In June, the Times appointed Gilbert Cruz, previously editor of the Times Book Review, as 'Canon editor' to oversee list-making ventures.
• Sean Fennessey, senior talk strategist at the Ringer, argues that the best lists 'provoke' and surprise, stating 'It's not good editorial strategy if you don't throw a curveball.'
• Platforms like Letterboxd, Goodreads, Rate Your Music, and IMDb allow users to log, rate, and list media, with Goodreads affecting book sales and IMDb serving as a crowdsourced canon.