Ok, so we were doing this survey type thing in Gardella's class a couple of weeks ago and one of the questions on it had something to do with Americans joining groups and clubs and why they do it, which, most of us thought, was partially because as humans we like to belong. Of course this is a generalization about why people do what they do, but I'm sure it holds true for many. People join groups to have some place where they can fit in, or to have something they do that sets them apart, and perhaps even above the rest.
As I was thinking about this it led me to thinking about wanting to belong in general. Even the most unique, individual people want to belong somewhere. In their heads, and perhaps even aloud to others, they probably even classify themselves. I mean we do it all the time. Think about what types of labels you give yourself without even thinking about it. Democrat, Republican, Smart, Geek, Jock, Cool, Popular, Goth, etc.
There's this test that I took a few years ago, which, as most of my friends can probably tell you, I became a little obsessed with at the time. When you take the test, you get sorted into 1 of 16 different generalized personality types. After I took it I read the descriptions that had been written to accompany it and I was amazed to see that most of it described me to a T. The way that I thought about things and acted everyday was all right there in front of me, as if someone had went inside my brain and pulled out all this information.
People might wonder why anyone could become obsessed with quizzes and tests like this one, but having been there myself I think I know why. Like I said before, we like to belong. For me, reading what had been written and seeing how accurately it described me made me realize that I was belonging by labeling myself. Of course, I now know that you can't just group everybody into 16 different categories and be done with it, but in a way I think it was still helpful because it helped me to explain me to myself, if you get what I'm saying.
I would be interested to see what you all think of this. This is the test I took- http://www.humanmetrics.co
Its based off of a few famous tests, the Jung and Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The test is kinda long, but if you want, take the test, read the pages that go along with your results and post what you were on here and whether or not you thought that it had accurately described you. I'll be interested to see what types people come up as and what your thoughts are on people taking these tests to try and fit in.
And for anyone curious, I just retook the test before I wrote this up and my type is still the same as it was the first time I took it- INTJ.
In other news, I'm going to go see Slumdog Millionaire tonight and am interested to know if anyone else has seen it and what they think. And finally, if you haven't done this already, check out fmylife.com. It is pretty much the best website in existence and sure to cheer you up if you are having an off day.
So sorry this note is rather short and focused on one subject. Hopefully in the future I can make these a bit longer but for today that's all I got. I hope you all enjoyed my first newsletter (hopefully of many) because I really enjoyed writing it. Oh and if I didn't tag you and you want to be tagged (or vice versa- I did tag you and you don't want to be) just let me know in your comments. I was mostly just tagging people who have been tagged in either Brad or Josh's notes.
March 6-2009
-By Kasey
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