Defining Yourself Through Pop Culture

Ordinarily, I think Facebook applications are fine. With things like Jetman, Scrabble (aka Lexulous), that March Madness Challenge thing, and Risk on the market, what's not to love? In the past few months, though, seemingly every time I log onto Facebook I get hit with a barrage of "which ______ are you quizzes." For example, my newsfeed right now is displaying "which Happy Days character are you", "which Friends character are you?", "which Seinfeld Character are you?" and "Which Wes Anderson character are you?" quizzes. In and of themselves, these quizzes are kind of fun I suppose. You answer some rudimentary questions which clearly correspond to how certain characters from these shows or movies would react, your results show up on your profile and the Facebook community gets a good laugh out of your similarity to Jack Bauer.


These quizzes are wildly popular. The primary "Which Friends character are you?" application has an astonishing 7,378 monthly users. The Seinfeld one has about 4,000. I think the number of people who sign onto these types of applications is indicative of a larger trend. The influence of pop culture has created a situation in which, for most people, it's not enough to be you. Everything about you-your persona, situation, life events,dating history etc.-has to be akin to someone else. It's not enough to be a drug-addicted history teacher in inner-city Brooklyn. You have to consciously model your behavior after Dan Dunne, Ryan Gosling's character in Half Nelson. You can't be any nerdy, anachronostic-looking high schooler: you have to be McLovin from Superbad. It's not enough to be a middle-aged, neurotic Jewish guy with a penchant for getting into absurd arguments: you have to be Larry David.

I remember reading a Chuck Klosterman article a few years ago about The Real World. In it, Klosterman wrote that people were initially intrigued by the show due to the uniqueness of the characters on it. After a few seasons, though, characters on the show started to group themselves into highly specific personality types, like "the angry, militant black guy" or "the extremely gay guy." I don't actively watch this show, but it makes sense: candidates for the show look at what has been popular in the past and try to play up these specific parts of their personality. I see the quizzes as an extension of this.

People tend to define themselves through pop culture. Anytime you see a popular or critically acclaimed film, chances are someone will comment on how relatable the characters were. On some level, this is why people go to the movies in the first place. Sure, entertainment is a big part of it, but it's also because we see ourselves on the screen. Who hasn't imagined himself swinging through the streets and battling criminals like Spiderman? What girl hasn't imagined themselves falling in love like Rachel McAdams in The Notebook? Who hasn't compared their group of friends to the gang on Seinfeld? The Facebook quizzes are popular because they provide confirmation (albeit artificial confirmation) that we are similar to our favorite characters. People would rather be analogous to Richie Tenenbaum or Chandler Bing instead of just being another random person.