Wednesday, June 18, 2014

The pleasures of silly surveys

 PlayBuzz, Survely, and other such companies are pumping out silly little surveys lately. I see them most often on Facebook. Normally, I don't play Facebook.

I keep a Facebook account basically so I can see the highlights of the lives of people I no longer see regularly (former students, friends in places I used to live, etc.). I don't play any of the games or engage with the site that way.

But I've been kind of addicted to these little quizzes that promise to tell me which character in this or that I'm like, or what category of monster I am.

From these surveys, I've learned recently that:

  • I am Athena
  • The kind of woman I am is: Loyal
  • The song "You're Beautiful" by James Blount was written about me
  • I am 68% scientifically literate
  • I'm 10% stereotypically white
  • I've read 62 of the 100 books the BBC says we should all read
  • I should star in Sweeney Todd
As I clicked on another one today, I asked myself why I enjoy these silly little surveys so much. It's not that I put stock in their assessments of me. After all, how does what kind of kitten picture I pick tell you about my beauty or intelligence?

But I am curious. I want to know what they'll say. I love to agree with or dispute the results just like you might with your Chinese fortune cookie ribbon or your newspaper horoscope. I love it when my Facebook friends take the same quizzes and we compare our results. 

Really, I've always liked surveys. Even though I'm not a beauty magazine girl, I always take the relationship quiz when I'm waiting to have my hair done. I like the simple organization. The idea that complex things like people can be analyzed by simple check-boxes and conclusions drawn. It's soothing and entertaining.

Plus, they just told me I'm Athena. That's a compliment I'll take :-)



1 comment:

  1. I find these little surveys silly if I think about it, but they are just interesting enough to draw me in and some are kind of cute. I keep waiting for one to tell me where I should live (and it be a place I actually want to live!) But until they recognize the existence of the musicians I actually listen to, I guess I'll have to think about New Jersey. (No offense to New Jersiites (??) but I don't do humidity!)

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