6/19/2004

INTJ redux

My Bloginality is INTJ. No big surprise there. But what is interesting is to glance through the comments column -- tons of blogging INTJs have taken the test on this site. There are definitely some Myers-Briggs types who like tests better than others. Based on my reading of blogs, my guess would be that there are many INTJs on the internet. (thinking about who has the patience, interest, time for this sort of thing.) There's no way to have a more scientific survey, I suppose, but it'd be interesting to know how that will change/is already changing for younger people -- for whom technology is harnessed in the service of social interaction rather than substituting for it... (phones, text messaging, dodgeball, friendster, etc). Using computers means something very different now than it did 20, 10, even 5 years ago.
On a semi-related point, I read an interesting piece in Wired on the plane about the online gaming industry focused not on gambling or multi-user roleplaying, but on plain vanilla things like checkers and hearts. I've always found those things incredibly addictive -- a quick game of reversi on yahoo (what was called Othello in the board game) is excellent for a 5 minute break during a long writing session. But apparently there are retired folks busy playing for 6-8 hours a day. That's where the internet is really changing the daily texture of ordinary people's lives. I've never had much patience for social critics who said the internet would be the death of social interaction -- and this shows how social connections actually grow with new technology. To be able to play a game of checkers any time, with someone anywhere across the globe -- that's cool (albeit in a subtle French Vanilla kind of way).