You know those articles constantly being shared via Facebook? Those little blips on your timeline, shared by someone you are only friends with because you wanted to creep on their photos, with titles like “13 Cats That Are Really Excited to See You” or “35 of Queen B’s Most Fabulous Dance Moves”? You may scroll past, thinking they nothing but spam on an ever extending newsfeed, but wait. Scroll back up. Click on it. Welcome to Procrastination Heaven, A.K.A Buzzfeed.

Buzzfeed, started by MIT grad Jonah Peretti in 2006, has reworked the way Americans digest information. GIF’s (little clips of film) and quick informational blurbs using humor has taken the place of full length articles. List-like pieces are the norm, describing everything from the 15 best sandwiches to make when you’re sad to why Disney’s Frozen is the best movie ever.

Buzzfeed also utilizes the format of a full length article, but usually reserves that for more serious news topics. In the last few months, the writers at Buzzfeed have written in depth reports on topics such as Sexual Assault, Same Sex Marriage, and the Olympics.

Buzzfeed’s brilliance comes from the way it can so easily entertain. SHS students are finding themselves spending hours trolling Buzzfeed’s constantly updating main page. As the infection of senioritis falls upon the class of 2014, a site like Buzzfeed is extremely dangerous. Hours can go by like minutes, as students continuously scroll through Buzzfeed’s array of quizzes, GIF’s, and articles. Senior Amy McQuaid said that “I go on it when I’m bored, when I want something to do.”

Buzzfeed will celebrate its 8th birthday this year, with the company being valued at more than $200 million. Many professionals in the media field have begun to consider Buzzfeed’s short and sweet style the future of Journalism. Others call it a sham, saying that its material is taken from other publications and simply changed in format.

Buzzfeed’s use of “advertorials” is also often criticized. An advertorial is defined as “a newspaper or magazine advertisement giving information about a product in the style of an editorial or objective journalistic article.” You may not even know that the article that you are reading is in advertorial. The adorable GIF’s of puppies could be the exact same as another article, but this one just happens to be payed for by and supporting a new brand of soup.

As the school year winds down, high school students stereotypically lose the drive they had at the beginning of the year, when binders were perfectly intact and leaving your bed in the morning did not feel like the apocalypse. Buzzfeed is there to fill up those hour long procrastination sessions! Why do your English project when you can look at pictures of cats that look like Kanye West? In the long run, it would probably be better to finish that poster, but hey, those cats are an amazing source of temporary joy.