Why pick your favorite?

[Fightgarr]

Now let me start by saying, this is not a thread bitching about threads about favorite things. I can see the appeal there despite what I'm about to say.

My question is, why do we feel the need to create extensive lists of people's "favorites". I don't necessarily mean you shouldn't have favorites, its important to know what you like. Its the often arbitrary designation of one of them being the absolute favorite and one being slightly lower down coupled with one's natural changes in preference that has me confused.

Let me give an example. Take people's favorite songs. Now I could list to you some of my favorite songs at the moment, but that has to do with my current tastes in music and I know that even a few weeks from now that list might completely change. Now there are songs that I could pin down as being consistently favorites of mine, for example 1979 by the Smashing Pumpkins is almost constantly one of my favorite songs but I couldn't designate it specifically as my #4 song or as my absolute favorite because that would be arbitrary and often untrue.

So, why do we feel the need to constantly list out our favorite things despite this?
White is my favorite colour of text.

 

[Gooble]

I agree with the OP; concerning bands I now have my 'traditional' top 3 of Rage Against The Machine, Beck and Be Your Own Pet (in that order), but I love way too much music now even to say that the traditional top 3 are my actual top 3. Now I just take whoever I like most/equally at that current moment in time.

As for songs, and albums, there is absolutely no way I could choose any sort of order, it all depends on what mood I'm in at the current time; I could possibly order them in more specific categories, i.e. genres, but even that it would be tricky.

 

[Cuniculus]

One, it's easy to talk about. Since we were kids in elementary school we've been asking things like "What's your favorite color?"

Two, it lets us compare ourselves to others and feel somewhat normal. No matter what "favorite" question you ask, at least one person is almost certainly bound to have the same one as you.

 

[Major_Sam]

One, it's easy to talk about. Since we were kids in elementary school we've been asking things like "What's your favorite color?"

Two, it lets us compare ourselves to others and feel somewhat normal. No matter what "favorite" question you ask, at least one person is almost certainly bound to have the same one as you.

That's true. It's a way to connect to someone you don't really know very well yet. It's good for conversation starters.

 

[Leorex]

humans are list creatures. we excel at creating lists. that is one thing we have evolved to do.

 

[Lazzi]

we are a social race, we live by comparing our selves to other humans. It helps form socail bonds and helps us decide who we like and who we dont much quicker.

 

[sonidraw]

Listing our favorite things (and asking others for theirs) is useful, especially in the context of socializing. Our favorite movies of all time, favorite tv shows, favorite sports and sports teams, favorite video games, favorite board games, favorite songs, etc.: these things can tell us and others a lot about ourselves, and when you have something in common with someone else, it makes a good conversation starter and may lead to better things in the future. It's basically an ice breaker.