Confession time: I’m addicted to Buzzfeed quizzes.
I don’t know what it is that makes me so obsessed with them. It’s not like I’ve always been curious to know which James Bond villain I am, or what kind of pasta best describes me. Still, whenever a new quiz pops up on my newsfeed or while I’m scrolling through Buzzfeed, I feel compelled to take it. It’s fun to find out what my imaginary future could be like, especially in college when thinking about the future is usually a borderline terrifying activity. Getting my favorite character on a “Which character from (insert literally any TV show made in the past 20 years) are you?” quiz makes me feel weirdly good about myself. And even though it was pretty devastating to find out that no, Ryan Gosling is not my soul mate, getting Leo DiCaprio on “Which 90s Dreamboat is Your Valentine?” totally made up for it.
But then one day I clicked on “Which Breakfast Club Character Are You?” Now, if you’ve ever seen The Breakfast Club, you know that basically the whole point of the movie is that you shouldn’t label people, because no one falls into just one category. The main characters at first all seem to be “typical” high school stereotypes, but by the end they realize that they have more in common than they think. This made the quiz seem pretty counterintuitive – the idea that anyone could be labeled as just one of the characters completely goes against the movie’s message.
There’s a quote from the Breakfast Club that, ironically, Buzzfeed chose to put on the top of their quiz: “You see us as you want to see us. In the simplest terms, in the most convenient definitions. But what we found out is that each one of us is a brain, and an athlete, and a basket case, a princess and a criminal.”
That’s what Buzzfeed is doing to us: it wants you to see yourself in the simplest terms, and the most convenient definitions, but you’re more than that. There’s nothing wrong with taking Buzzfeed quizzes if you’re just doing them for fun, but it’s important to remember that they are just silly quizzes, and your answers to questions like “What’s your favorite kind of cheese?” and “Pick a Mary Kate and Ashley movie” don’t really say anything about you. It’s bad enough that other people are constantly labeling us based on insignificant things, but now we also have to put up with the same treatment from a website featuring insightful headlines like “20 Ridiculously Cute Cat Mouths.”
I’m definitely not telling anyone to stop taking Buzzfeed quizzes, especially because there’s no way I am – if we’re being honest here, I took a break halfway through writing this to take “Which Character from The Sandlot Are You?” (Not to brag, but I got Benny the Jet and it might be the proudest moment of my week). Just don’t let your results change the way you think about yourself. Always resist the urge to label yourself – whether it’s based on online quizzes or something someone says about you in real life – because no one can be defined that easily.