Friends gather around. Let's talk about quiz zes. Yes quizzes. Those sometimes annoying sometimes fun tests we see everywhere. From social media feeds to news websites quizzes are all over the place. We click on them. We take them. We maybe even share our results.
Think about it. We have trivia quizzes testing our knowledge on random facts. We have personality quizzes telling us which fictional character we are most like. We have those "Are you a true fan?" quizzes for every movie show and sports team. It is quiz mania.
One could say quizzes are just silly online games a way to waste time when we are bored. Multinational corporations probably see them as ways to grab our attention while they show us ads for garbage products or the newest landfill stuff.
But maybe quizzes are something deeper than that. Maybe they tap into something fundamental about us and the way we see the world. Is life not just a big quiz in some ways?
The Game of Knowing and Being Known: Why We Take Quizzes
Think about school. What is school full of? Tests. Quizzes. We grow up being tested constantly. It is how we measure progress. It is how we are judged. It is how we learn our place in the system. Quizzes are in our blood.
Maybe online quizzes are a less stressful version of those school tests. There are no real stakes. If you fail a quiz about 80s music nothing bad happens. Except maybe your ego takes a small hit if you thought you were an 80s music expert.
Quizzes give us a chance to show off what we know or what we think we know. They are a chance to feel smart even for a few minutes. In a world that often feels confusing and out of control quizzes offer a small area where we can get some answers right.
And personality quizzes. Those are something else entirely. We want to know ourselves. Or at least we want to see ourselves reflected back in a fun and interesting way. Personality quizzes offer simple labels and descriptions. "You are a Ravenclaw!" "You are an Introvert Explorer!" These labels can feel good. They can give us a sense of identity even if it is a made-up online identity.
Quizzes Mirror Our Culture’s Need to Categorize and Compete
Our culture likes categories. We sort things. We classify things. We put things in boxes. Quizzes fit right into this. They help us categorize ourselves and others. Are you this type or that type? Are you good at this or bad at that?
And let's not forget the competitive part. Many quizzes have scores. We want to get a good score. We might even compare our scores with friends. Quizzes can become little competitions. Who knows more about superhero movies? Who is more likely to survive a zombie attack? Silly but we still kind of care.
This all ties back to that game we are always playing. The game of being better than others. The game of winning. The game of being on top. Quizzes in their own small way feed into this bigger game. It is all connected to that urge to dominate to be alpha to crush the competition even if the competition is just a silly online test.
So Are Quizzes Meaningless or Meaningful? Maybe Both.
Okay so quizzes might be silly. They might be a waste of time. They might be another way for corporations to sell us stuff. But they are also popular for a reason. They tap into some basic human desires. The desire to know. The desire to be known. The desire to compete. The desire to categorize the world and ourselves.
Maybe taking a quiz now and then is not so bad. It can be a little fun break. It can be a way to learn something new even if it is useless trivia. Just don't take them too seriously. Don't let a quiz tell you who you really are. You are more complex than any multiple-choice test can ever capture.
But next time you see a quiz online maybe click on it. Take it. See what it says. And think about why these little games are so popular. It might tell you something interesting about yourself and about our quiz-obsessed culture.
P.S. If you liked this little think piece maybe you'd like to subscribe for more. It is free for now. Who knows maybe one day I will even make a quiz about this article. Or maybe not. We will see.