Is there anything more satisfying than putting off your homework to take a 30 question quiz and find out what type of grilled cheese you are? In the world of saturated information and entertainment outlets, taking stupid quizzes is one way that I (and many other teens and young adults) waste no less than 5 hours a week on, approximately. It is intriguing to me exactly why we find joy in these quizzes.
Inherently, I know there’s no way a platform like BuzzFeed or Snapchat that can figure out my soulmate’s first name or what zodiac sign I am based on what juice I like, or what kind of movies I like. It’s uncorrelated fun. But, I still take the time to think through each question’s options, choosing the one I think is most like me. In and of itself, I think that’s the main reason why we like these quizzes so much. They let us display, in some format, who we are. And they ask us to pick something personable and unique along the way. I don’t care what grilled cheese I am, but it’s important to me that some website algorithm knows that I like tomatoes more than any other vegetable (vegefruit?). There’s something about taking a universal quiz and assigning your own personality to it.
Because I love to procrastinate, I also recently read up on some of the more official personality tests (no offense to BuzzFeed). One that has gained popularity recently is the Myers Briggs Type Indicator test. Essentially, it’s a personality test that has 16 different "personality types" that everyone can fit into. Interestingly enough, the test was created originally for women during WWII. When men left the country unmanned, women rose up to do two jobs at once: theirs and their husbands’.
The test was designed to help women find the best job fit for their unique MBTI personality. It’s no surprise that many companies ask their future and current employees to take the test as well. The test revolves around four dichotomies posited by Carl Jung: introversion/extroversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, and judging/perceiving. I’m not going to delve into the specifics of each type, but I will tell you I still don’t know which one I am. Which is shocking, because I’m a millennial/gen-z line straddler who absolutely loves taking quizzes and trying to define myself. And yet, each time I take it, I get a different result. I’m not sure if I’m just answering it wrong, because I spend quite a lot of time introspecting.
So what’s the glitch? Do I not know myself well enough? Am I too malleable of a person?
What I think is even more intriguing is that there are so many people like me who are so driven by this curiosity to know themselves. And not just know themselves, but display their unique self in a myriad of ways. Self-expression, art, music, writing, fashion, are all caveats of a society that embraces what it is to be you. Additionally, I think there’s nothing more exhilarating or frightening than being asked the question: “What’s your story?”
In my opinion, this drive to express ourselves is the reason why people click through inane questions like “Which beach house would you vacation at?” or “What sneaker represents your zodiac sign?” And the reason why they immediately share their results with their friends after. And maybe some people are like me, unsure of who they are, but extremely appreciative, and humbled, by the sheer amount of personalities that exist in the world. The idea that every person is essentially their own world, their own microcosm of experiences and backgrounds and thoughts and feelings and interwoven influences from other worlds.
With with that being said, I leave you, growing and developing college students, to find your own personality in any way you see fit, whether it’s delving into your psyche with a Carl Jung textbook in hand, or taking a five-minute Snapchat survey corresponding to your favorite colors.
