Imagine a world where society argues over the true color of a dress, white and gold or black and blue. A world, full of Buzzfeed personality quizzes and a new memeified version of Adele’s Hello every week. A world in which no one has heard the name Harambe or felt the grief and loss of his tragedy. A world identified by the strict confines and rigid social structure of social media bios rampant with Hogwarts houses, Hunger Games districts, Divergent factions, and Camp Halfblood cabin numbers. Welcome… to 2015.

Throughout the early to mid-2010s, no corner of the internet or social media was safe from Millennials and Gen Z alike self-identifying with major pop culture labels and factions such as Hogwarts houses and Divergent factions. 

This phenomenon was perpetuated by the rush of Young Adult Sci-fi and Fantasy novels that flooded the market hoping to ride the curtails of success found by series like The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins and Divergent by Veronica Roth. A popular story element and lucrative marketing tactic used in this neo-genre was to divide the population in the fictitious society into watered-down caricatures of certain traits or interests. 

The earliest and most prolific example that is still in use to this day is the system of identification created by J.K Rowling in the Harry Potter series; Hogwarts Houses. 

All four houses essentially can be boiled down to a single defining characteristic; Gryffindor: brave, Ravenclaw: intelligent, Hufflepuff: kind, Slytherin: ambitious. People choose which characteristic best fits them and then claim the label as part of their identity, online or otherwise.

One popular method of discerning which labels fit someone most accurately, mainly based on superficial opinions, was the ever revered Buzzfeed personality quiz. 

These quizzes may have been a fun way to waste time to some and a trusted divining tool to others, but all can agree that around 2015, the quizzes hit their peak popularity. Numerous versions of the same labeling quizzes were published during this era and the results were often displayed in social media bios and posts. 

Most of these labels were used in a harmless attempt to follow a fun trend; but how has the rampant overuse of categorization and factions affected interactions between members of different identities?

Jai Hall, a junior at Central Kitsap High School weighs in, “I just feel if people say you’re dauntless [a divergent faction], you’re careless, then you almost have to like, live up to that standard.”

Internal pressure amid the factions to be an exemplary subject worthy of the chosen labels has led to intense dedication to exhibiting the traits of a label or group. 

Additionally, the conflicts that exist between factions in canon fiction can transfer into tensions between label factions in reality. “Like they put so much more into it; they’re like if you’re this or this, we can’t be friends because we don’t match up like people do with the astrology signs,” Jai continues. 

Friendships have been lost or made based on arbitrary traits described by fictional factions due to the intense relevancy of this pop culture trend. Many personalities and actions were rooted in one’s self-identification with the labels. This trend defined a generation and a decade.

Even now, as society is well into 2022, labeling trends are still relevant. The trends have shifted from houses and districts to MBTI personality types and astrological signs. It seems that every pop-culturally aware person currently knows their sun, moon, and rising sign as well as they know their birthday or middle name.

These trends can be beneficial or harmful just like any other trend; labels can provide a sense of comfort and community as easily as they can exclude and fracture. But when partaking in such trends, it is imperative to remember that human nature is inherently complex and no one can be condensed down to a simple set of labels.