Add it to the list

Americans are obsessed with lists. Ok, maybe it's just me or maybe it's the whole world. However, I only feel able to speak authoritatively about America so we'll stick with that. But just think about it - we love lists; grocery lists, to-do lists, bucket lists, lists of things we have already done. There are websites whoes sole purpose is to organize information from our lives and turn it into lists; Netflix, Good Reads, Delicious*, Last FM*, digg, thingamalist (which I discovered while writing this blog along with about 20 other list making sites that are almost exactly the same), every online store has a wishlist function, even your favorites folder on your web browser - I could go on forever.

Sometimes I feel like I'm too busy making lists to actually do anything on the lists I'm making. This is probably just a personal issue as I do really think that lists and sites about lists are very helpful. They do make our lives easier and help to keep us organized but something about the compulsive list making just always seems odd to me. There is some kind of human need to gather together the information from our lives and this somehow makes us feel better, more in control. I am not at all saying I'm above this behaviour in any way (while writing this blog I created account with 2 online list type sites) but there are moments mid list-making that I feel that I get more out of the process of creating the list then what was probably the intended purpose of the list.

Note: items marked with an asterisk are courtesy Rachel.