4 Letters Say So Much
I was swiping through Tinder one day and saw a number of profiles with these random 4 letter codes in their little "About Me" section. Being that the world is a place rife with acronyms, and without wanting to jump right to Google, I opted to see if I could figure out what these could possibly mean.
"INFP" - Interesting, Normal, Fun, Productive
Well, that sounds pretty good. But, why would multiple people have that same acronym, is this something on Urban Dictionary?
"ESFP" - Extra Silly, Frugal, Punctual
That sounds like a winner right there! I'm sure I could come up with alternate acronym definitions for these codes, I finally looked it up and found out these are codes from a well-known personality test called the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Indicator. Well, that sounds fancy. Evidently this is a test used to learn about your personality; namely how you process outside stimuli, where you get your energy from, and how you look at the world. I thought I had a decent idea of the answers to those, but in order to know for sure I went and took the test.
Granted, there are a number of websites out there that claim to be the actual test, but their accuracy is questionable. Upon doing some further research, I actually came to the company that designed the test, and lo and behold, they offered the test for a fee! Since I wanted a legitimate analysis, I paid the fee and took the test, and I'm glad I did.
Once I completed everything, I read the detailed report about my specific personality type and found myself agreeing with almost everything. I was really quite amazed at just how much it learned about me just by having me answer a number of questions and click a few buttons. I had a better understanding of why folks put their type code on their Tinder profiles; it gives a little glimpse into their personality, so if you know you don't get along with a particular personality type, that may be worth considering before swiping right.
You may be reading this wondering, "Okay, dude, so what was your personality type?" I am an ESFJ - Extraversion, Sensing, Feeling, Judging
Just reading those four words doesn't necessary describe me all that accurately, but the gist of that rating, according to MBTI, is:
"ESFJs are practical, realistic people who believe that almost anything can be accomplished if everyone cooperates and works together. They will expend a lot of effort to make this happen. They want harmony in their environment and are always ready to do something nice for someone. Talkative, sociable, popular, and conscientious, their main interest is in helping others in their day-to-day lives. They value home, family, health, and friendships."
Now that sounds a lot like me. Doing something like that was very insightful. I'm glad to be able to quantify my personality in a recognizable way. When someone asks me to describe myself, I can now say something more intelligent than "I'm pretty fun!"
Oh, before I forget, let me update my Tinder profile...:-)