A few days ago, my friend bashed me for being an ‘NPC’ (for anyone who isn’t chronically online, that is an acronym for ‘Non-Playable Character’). For context, we were talking about our favorite movies, and someone asked me what mine was. ‘Interstellar,’ I said. That’s when people started laughing and calling me an ‘NPC’

Essentially, they were saying I have the movie taste of an average Joe. Since Interstellar is a massive hit, they labelled me an ‘NPC’, or someone who only likes the popular stuff and lacks what they call ‘refined’ taste. Meanwhile, they all chose favorites that were strictly niche. Whether the directors were obscure or well-known, one thing was consistent: the movies were anything but mainstream

Now, everything that is to follow might seem like venting, but I promise I just disagree with this whole notion (okay, I might be venting a teeny tiny bit).

First, I would like to point out why those people think this way: they think that if someone just follows the latest trend, then he is nothing but a sheep and not a true ‘connoisseur’ like them. They think popularity does not mean quality, and that’s true: popularity does not mean quality every time. But the keyword here is ‘every time’. There will be popular art that really isn’t all that good (Looking at you, Colleen Hoover). However, my point is that there is an increased likelihood of a random popular piece of art being better than a random niche one. If you randomly select a movie from the IMDb top 100 list, and one niche one, I guarantee you there is a greater chance the movie from the IMDb list will be better. 

The main problem with my friend’s mentality is that they refuse to see that popularity, although not a perfect metric to gauge a piece of art's quality, is the best metric we have. That isn’t to say that the random movie can’t be just as good. Hidden gems do exist, but that's the problem: they’re hidden. Therefore, we have to dig through the piles of debris to find those gems.

We have to search for them through trial and error, and that takes time. So, doesn’t it make more sense for people to pick a popular movie, which has a higher chance of being good, rather than sift through the giant pile of substandard movies, in the hope that they’ll find something good?

To top it all off, for some people, this elitist attitude is just a front. Many people force-watch these niche movies just to fit in with the people who are actual connoisseurs of this field. They are Marvel watchers dressed in cinephile clothing. It’s a bit sad if you think about it.

People, like my friends, might still disagree, and to them, I say statistics are on my side. There’s nothing you can do about it, my friend. Except get back to digging, I guess.