Buzzfeed published a video called “How Single Are You?” The video has four different Buzzfeed commentators who take the quiz with the same title. Some of the options that you can check off of on the quiz include “Stop asking me why I am single!”, “What if I end up being single forever”, and “What if I become a crazy cat lady?” The quiz heavily leans towards singlehood being a bad state of life that is not meant for singles to enjoy. There are ways to make it to say that you enjoy the single life, but it is harder to do given the few options that present being single in a positive way. This is yet another worthless quiz that is not worth singles time to take because it is biased towards coupling up. The single life has a lot to offer singles, but this BuzzFeed quiz does not capture those and decides to shame singles with the quiz options. The video commentary is not any better.
A Response To BuzzFeed’s Single Shaming Quiz
The video begins with Maya clapping and saying “Single. Single. We are single. How single are you? How single are you?” From there, the video goes as you would expect with four different people commenting about wanting a relationship or how being single is horrible. Eli says that he is “Plagued with the on again-off again” while Curly says,“I am very single right now.” Three of the four people are what would normally called single while Ella is cohabiting with a partner. Ella still can fit into the broad definition of single even though she has cohabiting with a partner. All of the people negatively describe being single with the tones of their voice and how they think of the single life.
BuzzFeed is a major media outlet that makes a range of media from videos to articles that people consume on a daily basis. It is not surprising to see this from the media. The media pushes romance, dating, and being in a relationship as what will complete you when that is not the case. Despite the video’s pessimistic view of being single, there were people who commented about the single shaming in the video, the quiz, and how being single is actually a great thing.
The question that should be asked is not “How Single Are You?”, but “Is A Relationship What You Need Right Now?” The first question is biased towards single being a wrong state of life when it could really be the right state of life for certain singles. The second question, that the quiz could have asked instead, would not be negative towards singles and would better evaluate if those who want a relationship are ready for a relationship. Realistically though, however the question was asked as the quiz title the quiz would still be biased towards relationships because it comes from BuzzFeed.
Summary
There are too many quizzes online today that you can take that ask you questions about being single and says why you are not in a relationship or why you should be looking for a relationship. BuzzFeed has added one more to the worthless pile of quizzes that are not helpful or beneficial to singles. The single life is awesome, but this quiz does not capture that with its check options. The media needs to change how it views singles and media commentators should be aware of the single population and facts about singles.
