Listography: You Are What You List

Listography: You Are What You List

My purse is filled with lists. To-do lists, grocery lists, lists of zombie movies I need to watch – you name it, I’ve got it in list format scribbled in colored pencil on scraps of notebook paper. Recently I was introduced to a website that allows me to organize all my lists digitally in one place: Listography. The best part about Listography isn’t my lists, though – it’s other people’s. Each list is an itemized representation of a person, a snapshot of an individual at a particular point in time. The nature of a list is that it is a compilation of items a person wants to remember. This automatically lends them some importance to the individual, and you can learn a lot about someone by examining the things that are important to them.

Take Alli, for example. On her main page are lists of poems, quotes, photographs, and places she wants to travel. I can see that Alli is a dreamer, someone who appreciates literature and aesthetics.  Then there’s Zee’s wish list for junior year. The usual items make an appearance – pencils, notebooks, and a new backpack – but so do band t-shirts and doc martin shoes. Zee is practical, but has an edgy, indie side as well.

Uses for lists are as varied as the users. Arnjacks0n uses lists to share links to tips and advice articles.  Sierra Snowbird uses lists to keep track of weather patterns. Wendy Wu uses lists to plan her high school course schedule. Nina uses lists to record possible names for “a cat” (her cat? Someone else’s?). The possibilities are endless.

I can bounce merrily from list to list, peaking into the mysterious psyches of strangers, for hours – unless I run into a list like this: why I don’t like myself. I peruse the user’s other lists. She’s taking AP English, my favorite class in high school. She has a list of favorite words, which tickles this English major pink. She’s had that same “going to school naked” nightmare we’ve all had at one time or another. Oh, and not only has she read Holes by Louis Sachar, she’s read it multiple times. I wonder if she’s read it eight times like I have. The truth is, this girl could be me on my worst day. It only stands to reason, then, that I could be her on her best day. So I click comment, and add a list of my own: reasons why I like you (even though I’ve never met you).

You can learn a lot about me from my lists on Listography as well, but you can learn even more before they go digital. For instance, from my list of funny quotes overheard, you can tell what makes me laugh, that I’m a serial eavesdropper, and what I had for lunch (since the list is on the back of a Chipotle receipt). You can also tell that I’m a person who believes that no matter how convenient computers make things, nothing beats the efficacy of a pencil for capturing humorous office banter.