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| Mary Elizabeth Young |
Buzzfeed told me I was a PB&J. After answering a series of seemingly unrelated questions, the quiz result read, “You got PB&J: You know what goes together even better than peanut butter and jelly? You and LIFE, you handsome devil.” Natalie and I could not help but laugh out loud. Not only at the coincidence that PB&J happens to be my lunch of choice most days (I have yet to find any sandwich as satisfying as this classic mixture of salty and sweet), but at the absurdity of the quiz. Why was there a quiz called “Which Sandwich are you?” and, more importantly, why did I take the time to find out?
Well, this quiz filled a brief study break (at least that’s what I told myself). Beyond that, however, I began to wonder why Buzzfeed quizzes are so popular. Why do we take the time to find out what dog breed, drink, or former U.S. president we are? But it is not just Buzzfeed. There are similar, more serious, tests that purportedly tell us more about ourselves—like Myers-Briggs and Strength Finders 2.0. What is it about this uniquely human desire to be defined?
Before Myers Briggs, you knew you were an introvert because while you love to be with friends you also like to be alone sometimes. And before Strengths Finder 2.0, you knew you were “Positive” not because your answers to a series of questions determined it as one of your “Top 5 Strengths,” but because you always tend to find the class “half full” (for lack of a better cliché). And for goodness’ sakes, you knew you were a PB&J because it’s fun and delicious and it happens to be your favorite sandwich, not because Buzzfeed told you so.
Taking these tests, it seems, are attempts to fulfill a desire to better know ourselves. But the desire to know oneself is not a preoccupation unique to the current generation. For the ancient Greeks were aware of this desire when they said “Know Thyself”; it was this same desire that piqued Plato’s interest, compelled Thomas Aquinas, and prompted John Locke and Thomas Hobbes. They sought to answer what it meant to be human or what is human nature and understood the importance of knowing thyself in order to know and understand the world around us.
In seeking to what it means to be human, however, some have arrived at the conclusion that humans can only be understood in light of the capital “T” Truth. That is, Truth which is universal and absolute.
St. Therese of Avila, in her book Interior Castle, wrote “We shall never succeed in knowing ourselves unless we seek to know God.”
Whether you believe universal Truth to be in God, as I do, or you believe it to be another, it is interesting to evaluate what role these tests play in our search for that Truth. These tests give us letters, adjectives, and fragmented descriptions of who we are; the results are generic, sweeping, and shallow and yet, we pay attention. Perhaps in paying attention, in this pursuit to easily define ourselves, we are being distracted from the pursuit of “Truth.” If it is in knowing this Truth we come to know ourselves, then maybe we’re going about this all wrong. If the knowledge of ourselves lies in this absolute Truth, then it cannot lie in these test results. So in pursuing an understanding of ourselves via test results, we are pursuing a dead end. If we can only know ourselves in light of the truth, then we cannot know ourselves through these tests.
This is not to say that there is no use in the Myers-Briggs or Strengths Finder 2.0. This is also not to say that Buzzfeed presents a certain threat to our humanity. Myers-Briggs and Strengths Finders do help provide us with some semblance of understanding. They provide us with buzzwords, fragmented phrases, and adjective lists that help us articulate ourselves to others and prove useful in elevator speeches. However, they are just that: words, fragments, and lists they are not the answer to fully knowing ourselves. For knowing ourselves can only be wholly achieved in knowing that Truth which is universal and absolute and seeking Truth is a life-long journey.
Mary Elizabeth Young,
of Louisville, Ky., is a junior McConnell Scholar at the University
of Louisville. She is studying English, Spanish and political science.