Getting testy....

Back in the day, when I was a youngster, girls read magazines aimed at self-improvement.  (Maybe boys did too, but if they did, I didn't know about it.)  They had catchy names like Seventeen and Glamour, and their sole purpose, as far as I can tell, aside from bringing in advertiser dollars, was to convince young women that they were not good enough to exist as is, requiring them to engage in all sorts of self-improvement.  Lo and behold, most of that self-improvement came directly to them in the form of the aforementioned advertisers' products, which I know will come as a shock to all.  But indeed, these quizzes routinely identified problems and provided solutions all at the same time.  It was a service, really, from their point of view.

Every month, girls would devour each glossy page, drinking in the beauty of the barely photoshopped models, (their standards were STILL unattainable even though they at least looked human back then), scouring the words and pictures for the key to glamour and success in life.  Among the tidbits offered up for their consumption would be quizzes of various kinds, which were geared towards "helping" these poor souls find out what was wrong with them, so they could fix themselves and become as happy as starlets.  (Of course, no one bothered to reveal the truth about Hollywood starlets and celebrities back then; we didn't have Lindsey Lohan and Kim Kardashian paraded on the front pages of every news source on a daily basis, no matter how immoral and debased their behavior might be.  Our role models were Doris Day and Dick Van Dyke and Mary Tyler Moore, who you could at least admire for their talent and hard work in bringing entertainment to the masses.)

If I may go off on a tangent for a moment....  How on earth did the United States, founded on strict Puritan principals of hard work and high moral character, ever get to the point where a woman could build an entire financial and celebrity empire off an ill begotten sex tape and a lawyer father who got a murderer off through the stupidity of a biased jury?  I don't get it.  I just don't get it.

But I digress....

Anyway, getting back to the topic of the day.  These magazines would provide their readers with helpful self-examination, to reveal hidden flaws (because teenage girls have so much trouble coming up with what is wrong with themselves on their own) and then helpfully suggest ways to overcome these deficits in character, or more likely, appearance.  Although they could encourage girls to be a little hard on themselves, in retrospect, most of these quizzes were pretty innocuous.  It was more or less an enjoyable way to kill a few minutes, often with your girlfriends, while finding out why your boyfriend never talked about feelings or how your hair should be styled to make your face look thinner or accentuate your best feature.

Fast forward a few decades and add social media to the mix, and we come to the point of this blog post.  Anyone who given even a cursory glance to Facebook over the last few months cannot be unaware of the quiz fad which has overtaken us.  Buzzfeed is everywhere, and we are choosing colors and foods and expressions and statements to find out which actor should play us in our life, what our personality profile might be, or which disciple we most resemble.

The interesting thing about these quizzes (other than the fact that men are now sucked in at rates equal to women, which causes me to wonder a bit) is how they play into our own idea of who we are.  It has frequently surprised me just how close the final answer comes to my own perception of my character or personality.  

As it turns out, Tina Fey would be the actress who would play me in a movie of my life.  I was surprised at first by the choice, I am not a huge Tina Fey fan, but as I thought about it, I was more surprised that by asking a few unrelated questions which seemed to have no relevance to my character or personality, the quiz came up with an answer which probably does fit.  She is a comedienne and a story teller, she obviously enjoys being a little out on the limb but not too far, and she is not really the Hollywood ideal of beauty.  She is her own person, forging her path as she sees fit, making people laugh and having a good time while she does it.  I hope that does describe me.

The personality test was almost a dead ringer for me, which surprised me to no end.  I have always tested with the same personality type in every test I've ever taken, INTJ (I even wrote a blog post about it once!) and once again, even though the questions seemed totally unrelated, this quiz nailed me right to the wall.

I was one of the lesser apostles, little known, hovering in the background.  I am half Jasmine, half Ariel.  (Don't ask which half is which, I'm not going there.)  I am right brained.  It got my college major right, figured out I am Schroeder from Peanuts, and decided I would be a penguin if I were an animal.  All in all, although there have been a few failures, most of these quizzes seemed to be about right.

Although I don't take these quizzes too seriously, it is sort of interesting how the results have appealed to me each time.  I don't know for sure, but judging by the remarks I see on facebook, other people seem to feel about the same way.  Given that the questions are pretty simplistic, and don't seem relevant to the outcome, it intrigues me how that happens.

Ultimately, after giving this my usual in depth examination, (by which I actually mean I have thought about it for the last five minutes while writing this post,) I think these quizzes appeal to the narcissist in each of us.  Unlike the quizzes of old, which appealed to the dark side of our personalities by finding what was wrong with us so we could "fix" ourselves, these quizzes appeal to the light side, affirming what we already feel good about.  I am guessing that when we read the results, we pick out the parts of the description that reflect most positively upon ourselves, and we disregard the parts that we don't like.  It is, in short, a fun way to affirm that we are a good person, good friend, good spouse, good employee.

Social media has come under criticism for a lot of reasons, many of which are legitimate.  It is a time sucker.  It can result in broken relationships as smoldering embers get fanned by the flames of online anonymity or feelings are hurt through a careless word casually dropped online without giving due consideration to who may see it and misinterpret.  It can make or break a business with just a simple post.

But it also draws people together who otherwise would lose touch.  It gives us an ability to connect and reach out to the world in a way that was not possible just a couple decades ago.  We can have friends we will never meet, and we can make real connections a world away.  We can learn about other lifestyles, we can find business vendors which will meet our needs, we can shop and bank and educate ourselves, all with a click.  Social media provides human contact for shut ins and the elderly who cannot get out.

And it can provide us with some entertainment on a lazy Saturday morning when we are driven to learn which Office character we might be.

Just for the record, part Jim, part Ryan.  I'll leave you to guess which part is which!