Throughout the past decade social media has made quite a splash in our daily lives. We see pictures of distant relatives living states away. We get updates on current events, we find quick reminders of birthdays that would have been overlooked on a busy day, and we get to say those quick one liners to friends and family we once would not have taken the time to pick up the phone, dial up the number and say things like, "Yeah! I hear ya!"
Along with these nice amenities comes the ever growing popular personality tests some of us, like me, can't seem to resist. Now, I will first give this disclaimer, once I was taking a profile questionnaire on if I take these tests and allow whoever is on the other side of the quiz to scan my media account. Of course, I clicked "never" while picturing the image of an old lady wearing sunglasses and drinking a martini that was supposed to be me when I got old. Or at least that is what the personality quiz revealed.
The truth is I am not very sure how safe it is to take these quizzes with whoever it is on the other end. I am sure it is some computer part reading my entire life history to sell to the market so now things I am interested in buying will begin to pop up with every swipe of the screen. But, the quizzes make me laugh and isn't that worth the struggle?
I don't believe it is because people are full of themselves that draws them to these new identity games. It is more of a comic relief in the midst of a busy world. What would be Kathy's dream house? And there is a log cabin I would have guessed. What would Sherrie's perfect dinner be and there is an Italian dish with fresh steaming bread. In all truth we can play these games with fellow friends all day long without plugging into an algorithm if that is what it is called. But there is shared humor when these pop up as we scroll to see grandchildren pics.
Recently a game was brought to my attention that I absolutely found hysterical. I am certain it is because I am a word nerd, English educator, grammar police in my head 24/7. This particular quiz used punctuation to describe your personality. "What is really going on in the mind of a semi colon?"
The comma-complex, an unfathomable mix of contradictions. The colon: bearer of good and bad news. The semicolon, hesitant; unsure of its place in the world. The ellipsis, heck for anyone with a lisp. The hyphen - tender for words. The apostrophe, overly possessive and bent on domination. Quotation mark - all talk and no action. The Exclamation mark - Can be difficult to control when not in the hands of a professional! The period. Often in competition to have the final word.
These are humorous descriptions, but when I looked into multiple versions of this test, I found it very interesting how different punctuations did match people I knew. My husband is definitely a period. He is direct and needs closure, basically me saying, "Yes, you are right, period." One of my daughter in laws is a total semicolon, and one of my sons has comma written all over him. You see? The grammar word nerd in me had a lot of fun analyzing friends and family with these symbols that help society read and comprehend the thoughts of others. When I emailed this to my editor informing him that he was a colon through and through, he wrote back, "And you are an exclamation mark, definitely an exclamation mark!" My husband would say, "I agree, period." I encourage my readers to give it a go. Grab any search engine and look up the quiz. Have a Fun!!!
