25 Things and 26 Ads

Claire Suddath reminds us of Time’s hysterical, anti-intellectual roots in an article deploring the current “25 Things” meme:

But it's just so stupid. Most people aren't funny, they aren't insightful, and they share way too much.

It’s all there: in place of criticism we have reflex, accepted wisdom, and a prurient promise (too much sharing!) on which the rest of the article never delivers.

Let’s face it: most people are interesting. They’re interesting in different ways, of course, and some of them might not interest you. And if you’re a depressed sophisticate who thinks everything is terribly boring, then sure, most people are going to bore you. Welcome to the planet.

The Time editors have festooned the piece with strange links to other Time articles, presumably for ad exposures. For example:

18. I cried when Spock died in Star Trek II. (See the top 10 1950s sci-fi movies.)

They're wrong on the facts: Star Trek II appeared in 1982, which happens to be slightly more recent than 1959. Never mind: when you get there, you see a page with one paragraph of introduction, one film still, six ads, and three addtional house ads (plus extensive headers and footers touting current features). But do you get the top 10 movies? Nope — they’re on pages 2 through 10!