{"id":80,"date":"2012-09-10T21:53:02","date_gmt":"2012-09-11T02:53:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/alexlouisealonso.wordpress.com\/?p=14"},"modified":"2012-09-10T21:53:02","modified_gmt":"2012-09-11T02:53:02","slug":"a-top-ten-state-of-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/2012\/09\/a-top-ten-state-of-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"A Top Ten State of Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

I live and breathe for lists. I list everything. I keep my to-do list as my prized possession. In fact, writing this without using a list is proving incredibly difficult for me. With the help of the work and research of scholars, I\u2019m hoping to convince you of the importance of lists.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\u00a0So here goes nothing\u2026 These are my<\/p>\n

\n

Top 5 Reasons Why Lists Are Essential to Humanity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

1.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 <\/strong>Essential to Modern Journalism.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t care what anyone says. In this day and age we want information and we want it NOW. This is why social media outlets such as Twitter have evolved in such a way. Top Ten lists, in turn, grab the attention of readers. In fact, Top Tens more often than not bring the most amount of traffic to particular sites and blogs as they prove to be in tune with our addictive nature as humans. Somehow only reading until number 8 on People\u2019s <\/em>\u201cTop Ten Sexiest Men\u201d would be considered a modern travesty. In fact, people are more likely to click a Top Ten link online than a hefty article. Stuart Fischoff, an expert in media and psychology, comments on humanity\u2019s struggle to juggle information. He responds that, \u201cif we can break things up into chunks of meaningful data, it\u2019s much easier for us to store and remember them.\u201d He remarks that this is precisely why the Top Ten has become increasingly popular in journalism. And more importantly why we, as a fast-paced culture, with a steady flow of information consuming our lives, find ourselves attracted to this structure.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

2.<\/strong> \u00a0 \u00a0Essential to Culture.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe list is the origin of culture.\u201d Philosopher and scholar, Umberto Eco, claims this statement. He explains that culture desires to \u201cmake infinity comprehensible.\u201d Put simply: we want to make sense of our lives. Through lists we\u2019re able to grasp what is incomprehensible. We can dissect what we may not understand and gain new knowledge, which is essential to the development of our societies. Eco further comments that, \u201cThe list doesn\u2019t destroy culture; it creates it. The list is the mark of a highly advanced, cultivated society because a list allows us to question the essential definitions. The essential definition is primitive compared with the list.\u201d The list literally adds<\/em> an efficient aspect to our culture. Through lists, we create culture by making sense of all that is happening around us.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

3. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Essential to Literature.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Outlines are essentially fancy lists aren\u2019t they? People have been using outlines for years to organize their thoughts. Academically we use them to draw attention to main points and important nuances of our studies. However, lists are a distinct part of literature beyond this. Look back on all of the Shakespeare you may have read in your life. He often uses lists of phrases within his prose starting with \u201cand.\u201d Eco tells us to envision a lover describing his loved one \u201cher smile\u2026and her eyes\u2026and her hair that\u2026and\u2026\u201d This is an aspect of literature, specifically poetry, that we can easily recognize. So, lists are poetic, lists have been essential to literature, lists are an integral part of the way we create and write.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

4. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/strong>Essential to History.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Lists have been around since the beginning of time! Really! In the Book of Genesis the world creation plan consisted of a six-step list. This goes back to the writers of the Bible. If this isn\u2019t convincing enough, I\u2019m not sure what is. Lists have been present throughout history from the 10 Commandments to the 10 Amendments of the Bill of Rights. A proven way to process and record information in the past is the new basis of writing and storing information for the future. Umberto Eco comments that we can find lists if we look to any part of cultural history. He calls the Baroque era \u201can age of lists.\u201d As definitions were disproved and replaced by new ones, lists proved to be a revolutionary way to process all of these changes. He explains how anything from a series of historic paintings to Galileo\u2019s detailed records about the moon should be considered lists.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

5. \u00a0 \u00a0Essential to Sanity.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Personally I\u2019m fairly certain that I would not be able to function without using lists in my day-to-day life. But, I\u2019m not alone. Studies have proven that writing down tasks stimulates cells in the reticular activating system of our brains to filter all that\u2019s necessary for the brain to process. In other words, when we write things down, we\u2019re more likely to feel compelled to complete them. As these lists leave us craving the rest of the points until we finish, To-Do lists do this even more. The feeling of guilt one has when they have not yet crossed off a particular task or assignment is irreplaceable. In fact, this is a real thing called the Zeigarnik Effect, which is the medical name for this tendency to dwell on incomplete tasks. We\u2019re not crazy! When we don\u2019t complete our lists, we often drive ourselves utterly mad. Lists have always and will always drive me<\/em> mad. They encompass my life and are my obsessive way of analyzing the world around me.\u00a0 However, I know I\u2019m not alone. Top Ten lists are on the rise. In our society where we demand the world to be composed in a concise and accessible way, Top Tens are the perfect<\/em> outlet<\/em>. I hope my blog will bring satisfaction to you in trying to bring some sanity to the crazy blogosphere covering the Internet today. So feel free to join me and I encourage you open yourselves up to this obsessive Top Tens state of mind.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I live and breathe for lists. I list everything. I keep my to-do list as my prized possession. In fact, writing this without using a list is proving incredibly difficult for me. With the help of the work and research … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a>\"\" Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1013,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71,72,109,110,111,112],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-80","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog","category-blogosphere","category-lists","category-to-do","category-top-tens","category-umberto-eco"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1013"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=80"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":186,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/80\/revisions\/186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=80"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=80"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/my.vanderbilt.edu\/artofblogging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=80"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}