A Quizzical Addiction

I’m sure you have heard of the huge media company, Buzzfeed. On their various platforms (their website, instagram accounts, youtube channels, twitter accounts, etc.) they put out a variety of different things out there. They report on important topics that a brand like CNN would report on, but they also post about more trivial things like DIY’s, challenges, story telling, and people testing out tiny houses. One of the more addicting and unimportant things that Buzzfeed puts out there is their quizzes. Buzzfeed quizzes have their own tab on their website and I am fairly certain that it is impossible to do every single one of them. There are so many ranging from titles like “Pick 5 Pizza Toppings and We’ll Tell You What Your Most Desirable Quality Is” to “Are You Snobby, Introverted, Or Just Sad?”. These quizzes are very unnecessary, so why are they so popular?

It all comes down to how Buzzfeed markets these quizzes. I imagine at some point, Buzzfeed launched their first handful of quizzes, put them somewhere on their front page , and then as people reacted to them positively, Buzzfeed kept creating more. Maybe at one point these quizzes had some deeper importance but now there are very few that mean anything. It is the way Buzzfeed titles these quizzes that brings people in. Of course you want to hear about your best quality after a short 3 minutes of looking at yummy pizza toppings. Even if you know and admit that these quizzes are super inaccurate - how could pizza determine your personality? - deep down this instant feeling of positivity still effects you. So, people keep coming back for more, taking quiz after quiz for this instant gratification. Buzzfeed knows you will do this and continue titling quizzes in huge, bold, clickbait similar titles with pictures next to them that show a shocked face or a picture that insights emotion even if it has nothing to do with the quiz. For example, if the title of that pizza quiz was posted in big letters, the picture advertising it would be a shocked women next to a puppy or a field of flowers or even two hands intertwined. These very obvious, cheesy advertising techniques are extremely effective.

I too am guilty of taking part in this off form of media. For the reasons above, I am basically the target demographic. I procrastinate a ton, putting my on technology, and am easily drawn in by cheesy things that have no deep meaning because they are easy to filter through while doing homework. Because of that, I can proudly say that of the characters from friends, my personality is one third Chandler Bing, one third Joey Tribbiani, and one third Rachel Green. Whether this media is positive or not i’m not sure, but I do know that in moderation it is an oddly fun way to lose track of time.

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