I like taking quizzes online. It's a good way to procrastinate... finding out what type of coffee I am (cafe latte), which zodiac sign I should be (Virgo), which Britney Spears I am (the sexpot)... you know the type. There are a thousand and ten websites that offer these silly quizzes. Yes, I admit it, they're silly and their results hardly qualify as profound representations of my personality or character. But I can't help it... they're fun! And addicting. My favorite quiz site actually offers "Ph-D Certified" quizzes which range in topic from "The 5 Factor IPIP Personality Test" (not sure what IPIP actually is, but it sounds impressive... apparently I'm unusually conscientious) to "How Sinful Are You?" (I will go to Hell because I'm overly guilty of envy), to "What Breed of Dog Are You at Work?" (Border Collie). Who knows how legit these Ph-D Certified tests really are, or what that even means. At this website that I love I've taken 161 quizzes.... what a waste of my life. But as I look at the list of all my results I can't help but think that what's displayed on my laptop screen actually IS a more than decent representation of who I really am. If you look past the sexpot and border collie type of results you will see a whole lot about me that most people don't know.... cumulatively, these results really do describe me. It's all rather amusing and kind of fascinating at the same time... after all, these are silly quizzes!!!

Anyways, my goal with this post wasn't just to list my various quiz results... which up until now is pretty much all I've been doing. My real purpose in this blog is to tell you about a particular quiz I took where I learned something about myself, but not from the results.

So we all know how facebook has added these ridiculous applications, many of which I admittedly have subscribed to. Well, one of them is called PersonalityDNA. Essentially your everyday, run of the mill, can find it on any of the other one thousand and nine websites, personality quizzes. It is however, slightly more impressive as it does not involve multiple choice but rather more innovative answering techniques which (may) provide more accurate results. Also, if friends take the quiz too you can then each take it for each other and see how well you really know your friend. It's quite enjoyable. Anyways, I subscribed to the application and took the quiz and it ruled me as a "faithful director"... the words themselves don't particularly fit me, at least I don't think so, but their description fit me to a tee (T?/tea?... never quite got the expression). So, after I first took the quiz I kind of forgot about it. Then, around a month or two later I decided to retake it and see if I got the same results. It is a long quiz, and like I said, it doesn't have a straight forward way of answering so I figured I'd probably get something new. But there it was again... faithful director! I was mildly impressed. What really struck me though was one question in particular....

It was a question where the result required a sliding scale. The question was "I often avoid unnecessary social interaction" and I had to put the little cursor thing where I thought it belonged on the scale from "agree" to "disagree". I never really know how to answer these types of social questions anymore because I'm very different now from how I was and I'm very different depending on who I am with. Although I am quite outgoing with my friends now, even a bit of an attention craver, I still get extremely anxious in a lot of social situations. So, without really thinking about it too much I just slid the cursor closer to "agree" saying that I often do avoid unnecessary social interaction. Then I paused. It didn't seem right. And here's what I realized... a lot of the time I welcome unnecessary social interaction... I'm often even the one to initiate it. I like going out places or being with friends. Here's the thing... it's the necessary social interactions that I try to avoid. Those are the ones I hate... picking up the phone to call and make an appointment, going into the post office to mail a package, answering a question when I'm called on in class. These things are necessities and they're the ones I hate. Isn't it strange how this simple quiz question which is basically meant to test how extroverted/introverted you are doesn't even scratch the surface of what it's meant to be asking? No wonder why I have a hard time answering the "social questions".... it's not as simple as whether or not I'm introverted or extroverted. I always thought of myself as introverted, but by the description I gave of myself I'm really an extroverted individual at heart with certain social anxieties. I'm rambling... I'm well aware. Like that IPIP quiz said, I'm quite conscientious. But this one quiz question made me realize a lot of things about myself and get me thinking.... and that's worth blogging about. Anyways, visit emode.com to find out what city matches your style, who you were in a past life, or even learn more about your subconscious self.