Teenagers spot a patronising quiz immediately. The fix is not to make questions easier but to widen what counts as general knowledge — internet history is as legitimate a category as any, and it puts a whole room on equal footing with the adults for once.
Modern knowledge
- What does GIF stand for? — Graphics Interchange Format
- Which company owns Instagram? — Meta
- What year was YouTube founded? — 2005
- What does VPN stand for? — Virtual Private Network
- Which game features a character called Steve mining blocks? — Minecraft
- What does the ‘www’ in a web address stand for? — World Wide Web
Science and space
- How many planets are in our solar system? — Eight
- What is the chemical symbol for oxygen? — O
- What force pulls objects toward Earth? — Gravity
- Which blood type is the universal donor? — O negative
- What is the closest planet to Earth on average? — Mercury
- What does DNA carry? — Genetic information
History and the world
- Which wall fell in 1989? — The Berlin Wall
- How many countries are in the European Union? — 27
- What is the largest country by land area? — Russia
- Who wrote the Harry Potter books? — J. K. Rowling
- In which country were the 2020 Olympics held? — Japan
- What is the currency of Japan? — The yen
Mixing one round of internet knowledge into an otherwise standard quiz is the single easiest way to stop a younger table switching off.