Personality types on the Internet

July 26, 2004 5:40 PM

Measuring personality types on the internet has been beaten to death. But a new survey at the University of Baltimore is trying to take into account typical social tasks including shopping, IMing, blogging, video chatting, online gaming as well as more solitary tasks; surfing for sex (pr0n, dating sites). The web has
posted by cpfeifer (14 comments total)

Your anwsers are confidential and annonymous.

People. Proofread. Please. You're making me and Baby Jesus cry.
posted by grabbingsand at 5:49 PM on July 26, 2004

what got cut off, cpfeifer?
posted by amberglow at 5:52 PM on July 26, 2004

aargh. I clicked post when I meant to click preview again. Some days my life is one big parade of sad clowns.

So, anyway, the last line is supposed to say something to the effect of:

"The web's content and function has broadened to more than the CD collections, resumes and favorite pithy quotes of engineering college students in the US. 4 years ago the results skewed towards introverts, but with new forms of online social interaction has the web lured its fair share of extroverts?"

but in a much more thought-provoking style. Something that would make Clay Shirky rub his bald head wondering "Yeah, what about that?" Oh well, maybe next post.
posted by cpfeifer at 6:14 PM on July 26, 2004

Linking to a survey's results: potentially interesting
Linking to a survey: not interesting.
posted by Space Coyote at 6:16 PM on July 26, 2004

seriously. i was thrown off by "Caucasion."

for those who don't read the intro and start answering questions, realize that there's no payoff. it's purely a form for submitted answers to the questionnaire. seems like a standard undergraduate psych project.
posted by mrgrimm at 6:18 PM on July 26, 2004

> Linking to a survey: not interesting.

Agreed. But, if nobody takes the survey, there will be no results.

We are the perfect audience for such a survey: I'm guessing the average MeFi reader spends a lot of time online interacting with other folks via blogs (reading, commenting, etc) and other electronic means, hence I passed it on.
posted by cpfeifer at 6:19 PM on July 26, 2004

I did it...but i want a prize or something : >

and i hate when that happens, cpfeifer
posted by amberglow at 6:23 PM on July 26, 2004

cpfeifer, it is now officially your job to post the results in September or October.
posted by BlueTrain at 6:52 PM on July 26, 2004

Most certainly. I'm very interested to see the results.
posted by cpfeifer at 7:17 PM on July 26, 2004

How much time do you spend clicking words that aren't links wondering to yourself why they don't go anywhere?

Seriously, I want to know. I find myself doing that too much lately. Href ennui or something.
posted by eatitlive at 8:28 PM on July 26, 2004

Wow, I spend so much time online that it was actually hard to guage my answers. I guess working for a software company doesn't help ;)
posted by starscream at 9:08 PM on July 26, 2004

My online time is utterly obscene, since my company effectively has a virtual office, with interoffice communication consisted mostly of jabber, with the occasional email or phone call. Combine that with a penchant to play online poker on the laptop while my honey watches her tv shows and cripes, my profile is wicked scary.
posted by mosch at 9:29 PM on July 26, 2004

What's with switching from hours per day to hours per week after a couple of questions? I barely caught the switch as I went flying through the thing. I bet they get a lot of junk data as a result of that. Plus, all of these types of surveys are really self-selecting. I'm not sure that the results would really be all that interesting or reliable.
posted by willnot at 4:18 AM on July 27, 2004

Metafilter: one big parade of sad clowns.
posted by five fresh fish at 9:59 AM on July 27, 2004