Not a top ten list of reasons why best of the year/decade lists suck
I'm really getting sick of all top ten lists showing the best/worst of the past year or decade. I don't care what the author's opinion of the best/biggest/worst story/movie/event/funniest video/whatever of the year or decade. I cringe when I see them, and here is why.
Top ten lists are a pathetic writers tool. Any idiot can come up with a list of ten things they like or dislike, and many do. It is the literary equivalent of showing cleavage. It is easy, it gets quick attention, and usually gets a reaction from the audience when they agree or disagree. It is a cheap trick to engage the reader.
To make it worse, they are usually wrong. Most are made up based on personal bias and little research. Lists of the things that stick out the most in a person's memory instead of a true exhaustive list of everything from the past year let alone the last 10 years. Usually the list will be convincingly reputed in the first 5 comments left saying "you forgot about this" or "number 5 was nothing compared to A, B, C and D". Meaning that the list was put together quickly to get comments, and that the (lack of) effort has been rewarded with the internet currency of comments.
Which is why we are seeing so many of them now- they are easy and they pay off. And it is annoying the crap out of me. Probably because even though I know they are lazy tools, it still piques my curiosity about what they think the top thing is so I have to read it.
And that annoys me the most of all!
Top ten lists are a pathetic writers tool. Any idiot can come up with a list of ten things they like or dislike, and many do. It is the literary equivalent of showing cleavage. It is easy, it gets quick attention, and usually gets a reaction from the audience when they agree or disagree. It is a cheap trick to engage the reader.
To make it worse, they are usually wrong. Most are made up based on personal bias and little research. Lists of the things that stick out the most in a person's memory instead of a true exhaustive list of everything from the past year let alone the last 10 years. Usually the list will be convincingly reputed in the first 5 comments left saying "you forgot about this" or "number 5 was nothing compared to A, B, C and D". Meaning that the list was put together quickly to get comments, and that the (lack of) effort has been rewarded with the internet currency of comments.
Which is why we are seeing so many of them now- they are easy and they pay off. And it is annoying the crap out of me. Probably because even though I know they are lazy tools, it still piques my curiosity about what they think the top thing is so I have to read it.
And that annoys me the most of all!