Buzzfeed Quizzes Are Fun and Stupid, but Maybe That’s the Point

Sadie McDonald

Many people reading this between the ages of 18 and 24 are familiar with the American news company Buzzfeed and have spent copious amounts of time mindlessly taking arbitrary quizzes such as, “This Friendship Quiz Will Totally Expose If You’re Good Enough To Be Shrek’s Friend” or “Believe It Or Not, There’s A Donut That Describes You To A T — Take This Quiz To Reveal Your Match.” (I am a jelly donut, and Shrek and I should be friends forever.)

Of course, I will admit that I have taken many Buzzfeed quizzes before because why not? They are something to do to pass the time and can be funny, entertaining, or just absurd. “This Boomer Quiz Will Expose If You’re Actually An 80-Year-Old Man” fits all of these qualities perfectly.

that generate a personalized story for you based on your answers to a set of questions.

Buzzfeed quizzes are both fun and stupid, but maybe that is the point. They are not meant to be taken seriously, and even scientific personality tests are only so credible. When the news is a constant barrage of illness, death, and politics, it is nice to be able to see what book character you are or which outfit matches your aesthetic. Sure, after a while the surface-level questions become tiresome or the frustration of not having your favourite colour in the choice of answers gets irksome, but the distraction of discovering quirks about yourself is enjoyable enough.

The use of the word stupid may sound harsh, but how else could choosing breakfast foods to determine your soulmate be described? My point is, no one really thinks that these quiz results contain true enlightenment. Still, it is fun to see what Taylor Swift era you are, what your mental age is, or even which version of Coraline’s mother you are. People like talking about themselves, and they like taking personality quizzes too. It is why results can be shared via Facebook with the click of a button, or why entire Myers-Briggs meme pages exist.

Vancouver is gorgeous in the summer, and there are an infinite amount of hikes to go on, parks to bike around, and beaches to tan at. Calgary really does not have much to offer in terms of summer fun except for the Calgary Stampede. Vancouver takes this category. So out of the ten parameters that we compared, Vancouver won six and Calgary won three. If you hate the rain as much as I do, we can give Calgary that weather segment and make it four points for the Albertan city. So there you have it, in my opinion: Vancouver is the best place to live in Canada.

Without even loading more quizzes, there will already be what looks like recycled content, or in other words, material that has already been used being presented as new. For example, I do not think there is much of a difference between these two quizzes based on their titles: “Eat A Ton Of Your Favorite Foods And We’ll Reveal Your Perfect Vacation Destination” and “Pick One Food Per Category And We’ll Give You A Country To Visit.”

In addition, Buzzfeed quizzes are now enlisting the help of artificial intelligence in their AI quizzes

There is nothing wrong with wanting to take all sorts of ridiculous quizzes for entertainment value. They may be of low priority for news value and provide generic answers based on profiling responses, but they bring a smile to the face of many. After all, you already know the subject of your personality test best because who knows you better than you? The only thing you do not know is if you are a cow Squishmallow, chocolate donut, or earth fairy, but fortunately for you, a Buzzfeed quiz can tell you that.