Top 6 Reasons That Top X Lists Are So Addictively Clickable

I don't write about social media much, but this has been spinning around my mind for a long time.

Why do we feel an overwhelming urge to click Top 10 lists that we see posted on social media, even if it's regarding something we care little about?

I have a few theories.  So these really aren't the top 10 reasons since I'm no head shrinker, but merely my best guesses.  I've done it David Letterman style:

6.  (Get ready to gag)  We are more used to bite-sized information in the SMS/Twitter era we live in daily.  (Forgive me, I put it at the lowest possible position, but I regret you had to read that first.  Stay with me.)

5. We know reading stuff on the Internet can often be a distraction, but the title virtually guarantees that it is providing probably useful information and not wasting time on a long winded and poorly researched opinion piece that is as thin as graphene.

4. People like it when authors get to the point and don't ramble on for pages about things we only really care a little about.  People still read Reader's Digest after all.

3. Our brains process lists differently than paragraphs, and when we are collecting knowledge from the internet, that activity is powered more by that part of our brain.

2.  We believe that lists are the result of someone else doing the work to research and whittle down a topic that we don't really want to dissect, or have time to dissect ourselves.

And the number one reason I think they are so addictive?

1.  We know before clicking it exactly how long the article will probably be, providing a predictable experience, so we know exactly how time we will waste before we get the meat and move on.

Now get back to work.