According to BuzzFeed’s senior publicist Kristen McElhone, BuzzFeed is a website that presents funny and serious information, often in list form. Since Jan. 2013, BuzzFeed has had an increase of 35 million visits, according to Quantcast, a company that specializes in online audience measurement. We wondered why people loved BuzzFeed so much.
1. It has “wildly interesting” stories
Senior Julia Duerig says she goes on BuzzFeed all of the time, mostly to see what sort of new and “wildly interesting” lists and videos have been posted on the site. According to Duerig, BuzzFeed is her “go-to” website.
2. It combines news and social media
“We did this for teens,” said McElhone. “We take the trivial and fun and use it to portray real information to teenagers who otherwise would not read about it. By making BuzzFeed fun with a hint of serious, we ease the mind open to other news.”
3. It shows “really good-looking food”
McElhone said she uses BuzzFeed for more than just work. She uses it to find recipes. Senior Mariya Yanovskaya also goes on BuzzFeed to find new recipes to try and to look at the visual displays of food.
4. It connects people around the world
“[BuzzFeed] connects us because it makes things that are serious also really relatable,” said sophomore Emma Kawasaki. “…BuzzFeed really does a good job in putting information out there in a teenage-friendly way and allows us to share the stories we find to better connect with each other. ”
5. It appeals to every age group
“I think it really appeals to everyone in some way or other,” Hebrew teacher Josh Morrel said. At one point, Morrel said he went on BuzzFeed so often that it has automatically been saved in his top eight most-visited websites on Google Chrome.
6. It has “downright” funny content
Junior Heather Shin said she mainly uses BuzzFeed to share funny stories with her friends. Shin said that one time a story she and her friend were reading was so funny, they laughed so hard they accidentally spit their drinks out.
7. It has variety
“There [is] so much variety in [BuzzFeed],” said senior Megan Reid. “There [is] not just one type of story. Everything is different. Some websites try to do that, but I think BuzzFeed is really successful.”
8. What’s not to love?
“I’ve seen BuzzFeed really grow in my time working here,” said McElhone. “I [have] fallen in love with it myself. It has everything and really geared toward capturing teens’ attention and opening them up. Really, what’s not to love?”