Five Mistakes You’ll Make Freshman Year,” “Ten Reasons to Love This Season of The Walking Dead,” “Fifteen Things to Know Before Studying Abroad.” Titles such as these flood Facebook feeds around the world, asking the curious to pause in their scrolling and follow an embedded link to The Odyssey Online. It’s not surprising that this style of writing, the “listicle,” has become a trademark of Odyssey publication, even though the site is full of thousands upon thousands of articles in all styles, from complex political arguments to journalistic reports on current events. When someone asks me what this Odyssey thing is that I’ve started writing for, I typically give them some examples like those above and they immediately recognize what I’m talking about. Why, however, do Odyssey contributors write so many lists? Here’s a bit of an insider’s perspective:
1. They’re simple and structured.
As college students, we spend much of our mental energy writing formal essays and contriving suave segues between paragraphs, so it’s a luxury sometimes to just say what we want to say and say it simply. The format of a numerical list organizes our thoughts for us and lets us play with a different style of writing than what we’re used to in academia.
2. They’re quick reads.
We’re not creating content for ourselves, but for you as readers, you who often might happen upon an article while scrolling through social media between classes or avoiding eye contact on the train, so we know that if it’s too long, you’ll have to set your phone down and likely won’t come back to finish reading. At least with a list, readers short on time can get the gist in just a few numbered points and maybe even feel inspired enough to click “share” before the next stop.
3. They’re quick writes.
As much as we’d like to pour ourselves into complex and well-researched discourses on the human condition every week, between full course loads, jobs, attempts at socializing, and the requisite monthly crises regarding what on earth we are going to do with our lives, we college students often find ourselves a tad short on time to write something so moving. So sometimes we grit our teeth and type up a few funny one-liners to submit before our weekly deadline.
4. They’re fun.
Realistically, we know that a big part of our job is to entertain you. Most people scrolling through Facebook aren’t seeking out lengthy musings on global relations or the melting ice caps. They’re trying to unplug from all that for a few minutes. We understand; we sympathize with that need to escape, and we write entire lists of the best moments from Gilmore Girls and most nostalgic 90’s pop songs. Writing these things is fun for us too; it’s our own escape from contemplating literary theory, medical ethics, and our real duty to the future of the human race for a little while.
