You can find it everywhere. Hyperlinked in the flood of “news” that inundates every possible social-media outlet, Buzzfeed has exploded. In fact, Buzzfeed has become so prevalent that it occasionally manifests as a verb: “I don’t know dude, she buzzfeed-ed it to me.”
Spanning the content gamut from memes to quizzes and everything in between, Buzzfeed can be likened to that one fast-food restaurant that has just a little bit of everything on the menu. But every time I see those jarring pieces of graphic design that are the ubiquitous red on white header, or black on yellow buttons, I am overcome with an almost visceral reaction. We simply don’t need any more reductionist forms of writing. There are apparently 21 ways to simplify your life, 8 ways to whatever – it seems as though everything has become list-based and steeped in minimalism. Beyond that, Buzzfeed seldom credits contributors and articles are almost never sourced.
Don’t get me wrong, there is something positively magical about the short-form. And there’s nothing wrong with lists either. The work of Sherman Alexie, most notably, has taken the form of a list, and it was quite a powerful read. When writers can judiciously compose artful compositions that are both easy to read and chock full of meaningful content, the short-form is quite impressive. But when it comes in the form of an underwritten list-article (list-icle?), one has to wonder what the point of such a service should be.
More importantly, why should you care? Because Buzzfeed is single-handedly changing the way individuals seek to receive and interpret the information they acquire from web-based sources. The pervasive nature of this list-based “journalism” has only grown, spurring the creation of a multiplicity of similarly designed sites. No longer are readers perusing the internet in search of thoughtful, purpose-driven writing delivered in a professional and academic register. Rather, individuals are taking to the internet with the expressed purpose of finding click-bait that can be presented and digested in 18 “new” and “exciting” ways, or 140 characters or less.
My ideal would be for Buzzfeed to fade into the abyss of the inter-globe. It is my hope that it will eventually become recognized as nothing more than an anachronistic piece of pop-culture history that enjoyed brief reign as a quirky media outlet. I am aware that this idealized sentiment is far from reality, however. When I sent a friend an article this morning from the New York Times op-ed column, he replied in the same manner that all of my “busiest” friends do — “this is too long. I’ll get to it later in the week.” It was barely over 900 words.
