Ticking Boxes

My mental age is 40; my heart’s age is 80. That averages out at 60 which is my chronological age – thank goodness!! 60 is a lovely time of life: still young enough to push the boundaries and old enough to get away with it.

How did I come by the quoted stats? The online quiz, of course. Friends pass on the links and, being a sucker for the questionnaire, I keep clicking away till I am presented with the result. In the days BI (Before Internet), I would pounce on the various Q&As in the glossies and tick away avidly, collecting the associated alphabets (a, b, c or d) and then totaling them up to find the score. Check Your Compatibility (hubby and I were a perfect match – I knew that, but it is lovely to be told so by an ‘intelligent’ medium); What Shape Are You? (That would be telling!); Are You Antisocial? (Very – I prefer curling up with a book to attending a shindig); Are You Eating Healthy? (Of course not – I’m not yet ready to forgo ice creams and cheesecake); What Does Your Personality Rating Say About You? (Plenty!!); Do You Spend Too Much Time on the Internet? (Probably. But then, I have a lot of catching up to do.) Curious and adventurous, that’s me!

Sometimes the questionnaires come with a bonus. Fill up and post and you may get a lucky gift: I have received T-Shirts, key chains, a scarf, and sundry other items over the years.

I wonder about the people who come up with the questions and answers (some of which are impossible to identify with, even though you are urged to tick the ‘closest answer’). How accurate are the assessments? Having gone through my fair share of psychological tests (college admissions, job interviews), I often queried the reliability. I am affronted by the thought that someone can tell exactly who and what kind of person I am by merely scanning a cold and impersonal interrogation. I have been assured that there are checks and balances built in to ensure veracity and that the method is tried and tested. So, now I enjoy entering wild and wacky choices when forced to take an assessment test. One questionnaire asked if I would like to ‘kill my parents’ (!) I checked the ‘yes’ box. I made it to the interview and beyond!! (Perhaps they were really looking for someone with murderous tendencies.)

Well so much for the questionnaire. I have now to return to that recurring quiz: Are you ready to face the day? I check ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ – Yes, because the day holds out some promises; no, because there are unavoidable routine chores. Does that make me an optimistic pessimist or should that be the other way around?