Do you live in a bubble? A quiz

[RandySF]

I scored a 37.


http://www.pbs.org/newshour/making-sense/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-a-quiz-2/

[blue neen]

1. That was pretty interesting.

I scored a 49...guess that's kind of bubble-ish.

[Viva_La_Revolution]

2. 70

Cool

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

3. 43

Middle-bubbling.

[angstlessk]

4. Got me a 46?

Seems I am more snobbish than my parents?

[Doc_Technical]

5. 56

I ain't got no class

[hay rick]

15. 55.

Eat your heart out.

[Phentex]

20. 54

Edge of your bubble

[Generic Brad]

6. 72

It's been an interesting life so far.

[So Far From Heaven]

34. Mine too. Got a 65

but I've done everything from gippo logger to Professor of physics. I guess that makes me half and half.

[Moondog]

7. Apparently. 8.

[In_The_Wind]

10. ...

[Moondog]

12. ~

[In_The_Wind]

13. You need to get out and about more.

[dixiegrrrrl]

8. Some of the questions were slanted towards males. n/

others did not allow for non-drinkers or non-smokers or non- tv watchers.

[noamnety]

9. which ones did you think were slanted toward males?

I'm female and didn't pick up on that.

[dixiegrrrrl]

29. the one about earning a letter in High School

the one about strenuous labor all day

[noamnety]

31. Ah.

My sister did high school sports (not sure if she earned a letter?), and I was in the army, mostly at a desk job, but basic training was strenuous - so those didn't click for me as male only, but I can see that if you're thinking in terms of traditional gender roles, those would seem male. I guess the female equivalent would be ... I don't know, if you've ever mended clothing yourself?

[we can do it]

61. I'm female and have done both.

[raccoon]

68. That was one I could say yes to, about the strenuous labor.

And I'm not a guy.

Standing up all day in the same place, packing dresses, I consider to be strenuous. And I was a teenager then! When the work day was over, I ached all over.

But I agree, those two questions are more slanted toward males.

[Thor_MN]

77. There are letters for female athletes

The job I worked that had strenuous labor all day was as a nursing assistant. Females outnumbered male about 4 to 1.

[Mnpaul]

94. Several that I work with do it

and some not so much.

Reading some of those questions led me to believe that the creator of the quiz needs to get out more. Some questions could be answered either way, both or neither. I know more than those two Jimmie Johnsons and could go either way on Branson.

[No Vested Interest]

39. Many/most women past 50 might not know the various ranks in the military,

as it was less common for women to serve in that period.
I only knew 1 of the five shown.

[greymouse]

78. I knew zero.

I thought the corporal one was sergeant. The others, no idea.

[No Vested Interest]

80. Corporalas the only one I had correct.

I thought the first one was the "wings" a pilot receives.
I was wrong on the double bars, and others.

[Arugula Latte]

86. Same here. No clue.

[Skittles]

82. I am well past 50 and knew all of them

helps that I grew up as a GI brat and served in the military too

[No Vested Interest]

83. Yes, those things would help.

[RandySF]

14. I was thinking the same thing.

I don't drink, so I don't buy any beer whatsoever.

[dixiegrrrrl]

37. Yes, that one too.

They score you for doing things or not doing things which have no bearing on the point they are trying to make.

Fer instance.....not going to a fast food outlet or to a movie in the past year. To me, that is the mark of a sane mind, to them it is being in a bubble.
My take away is their definition of being in a bubble is anyone who is different than the average person.

[hibbing]

53. It was weird for me too

I rarely go to movies, don't drink and some of the others didn't apply. Does income automatically lead to being in the bubble? I certainly don't make enough to be in some sort of bubble, but I got a really really low score.


Peace

[LiberalElite]

17. I didn't notice any of that nt

[In_The_Wind]

11. 54

[LiberalElite]

16. 41 here nt

[femmocrat]

18. 65 points.

I grew up poor and now live in a rural area, so I guess my bubble burst a long time ago!

Some of the questions... like about beer, fishing, and a pick up truck.... seemed stereotypical to me however. We don't do any of those things even though we are rural! What do they think we are -- Buck wild?

[2naSalit]

59. Me too.

don't do teevee, movie theaters, drink, never went to high school but have a masters' degree, grew up all over the US and live in a place where the year-round population is <1500.

Got a 56. I purposely moved here to be isolated from the majority of humans fro much of the time but it doesn't mean I'm not paying attention either. No mention of online anything. Not a very good survey.

[Tobin S.]

19. 64 for me.

A typical man of the world.

[Agschmid]

21. 22. Apparently I am quite in the bubble.

[ohnoyoudidnt]

22. 21

Last edited Sun Mar 27, 2016, 08:56 PM - Edit history (1)

Those were some weird questions.

Whether or not I have bought a truck, been fishing recently, and drink domestic beer determine my bubble?

[baldguy]

23. From Charles Murray of "The Bell Curve" infamy.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bell_Curve

[KamaAina]

54. Yeppers. That's why I didn't post it when I saw it this morning.

[Blue_Tires]

70. Which explains why his quiz was whiter than a piece of chalk

I definitely don't see Murray himself scoring that high on this...

[Pakhet]

24. 64 - but not real sure what that means n/t

[handmade34]

25. no bubbles for me

my life is all about reality close to 80

[stopbush]

26. 58 here.

[Cheese Sandwich]

63. 58 also

Gotta say I don't put much stock in this test.

[rug]

27. 41

[rurallib]

28. 61

[EmperorHasNoClothes]

87. 61 here too.

42–100: A first-generation middle-class person with working-class parents and average television and movie going habits. Typical: 66.

Pretty much nailed it.

[tammywammy]

30. I got a 47

42–100: A first-generation middle-class person with working-class parents and average television and movie going habits. Typical: 66.

11–80: A first-generation upper-middle-class person with middle-class parents. Typical: 33.

Growing up we were upper middle class. I live in a working class neighborhood and my income is above median for the US.

[noamnety]

32. I had a 57.

But I should have gotten extra bonus nobubble points for regularly eating food I find on the sidewalk. That's so out of the bubble they didn't even think of it.

[csziggy]

33. I got 46 - probably because of the pickup truck question

And the one about working at a job that made me hurt. Both of those really shouldn't have counted for me - I raised horses for many years, had to own some sort of truck to two the horse trailers, and did most of the work on the farm myself. Somehow I don't think that really made my bubble thinner.

[Iggo]

46. I inherited two pickups, but I never bought one (which was the question asked) so I checked No.

Also, as a sports fan, I thought the Jimmie Johnson either/or question was stupid.

I suppose I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that if you know one, you know both.

[csziggy]

47. I had no clue on the Jimmie Johnson question

I just clicked that one randomly. I don't do sports other than horse ones.

[Phentex]

48. I got that one and I'm not fan of nascar...

but I knew Jimmy Johnson the coach didn't spell his name that way.

I agree that some of the questions were just odd. We used to go fishing when we took the boys camping on occasion. That doesn't make us fishermen. And I don't watch many of the tv shows they listed nor do I buy beer. But I was raised in poverty in a rural area so I think those questions raised my score.

[Iggo]

49. Oh! Was it a spelling question? Oh shit, I missed that!

But beyond that, I'm old enough to remember the football coach, and I watch enough ESPN to know of the racecar driver.

[csziggy]

50. Oh - NASCAR - no wonder I had no clue! nt

[Gidney N Cloyd]

60. Which one did the male enhancement commercials?

[Phentex]

65. Oh no!

Please tell me it wasn't the coach!

[Skittles]

35. 67

respectable score

[PufPuf23]

36. 55. nt

[mackerel]

38. I scored 42

but it doesn't match Charles Murray at all.

42–100: A first-generation middle-class person with working-class parents and average television and movie going habits. Typical: 66.


I was born outside of the US but my Father was second generation American and both of my parents were highly educated professionals. We were middle-class and it was my Father who had average television and movie going habits.

Me, I don't watch tv or go to the movies. Why would I need tv or movies when there is the internet!?!

Isn't Charles Murray the Bell Curve guy? He's actually made a successful career out of being mostly wrong.

[Rhiannon12866]

40. Interesting. I scored 36.

I apparently have gotten out a lot...

11–80: A first-generation upper-middle-class person with middle-class parents. Typical: 33.

0–43: A second-generation (or more) upper-middle-class person who has made a point of getting out a lot. Typical: 9.

[applegrove]

41. 32

[Arugula Latte]

42. 16 -- I live in a bubble. Thank goodness.

I know I'm not a regular "American" and I like it that way. Some of that is by life circumstance (what I was born into) and a lot of it is by choice. We chose our city in part because it is so different than the rest of most of this country.

I'm sure many people would think I'm a snob. Well, we can't all be "down home" types.

I've never really fit into the USA very well, except for some of its more liberal cities and college towns. I don't like the things that most Americans like, such as religion, professional sports, the military, etc. And I'm lucky we live in a city that has lots of dining options so we don't have to go to corporate chains like ... Olive Garden.

[PasadenaTrudy]

51. Same here

I've always lived in the Pasadena area of L.A. I love Portland and Seattle too

[Arugula Latte]

85. We've gotta do what we need to do to keep our sanity in this country, amIright?

[PasadenaTrudy]

91. Yup!

Life is short and only getting shorter, lol!

[alarimer]

43. Really? Charles Murray, co-author of the discredited Bell Curve?

Which purported to relate intelligence to race. And did, through the use of discarding all the data that did not fit the premise.

In this case, I am proud to say I live in a bubble, a reality-based bubble.

I also disagree with the premise of a lot of those questions, some of which severely curtail the possible answers. For example, number 6, which asks if you've ever held a job that caused you to hurt at the end of the day and that headaches don't count. I think that is overly dismissive of migraine headaches, for example, which may be exacerbated by working conditions. But the job caused me the most pain was as a fish and wildlife technician, a job that Charles Murray would not think was a blue-collar job, though it did involve a great deal of physical labor.

My score was 51 and none of what the descriptions apply to me. I neither live in a working-class neighborhood, nor am I first generation middle-class. And I most certainly do not have mainstream tastes in movies. I just see a lot of them, of almost all genres.

[DinahMoeHum]

58. Yep, THAT Charles Murray. A real fuckhead.

n/t

[PasadenaTrudy]

44. I scored 17 n/t

[Skittles]

81. you want I should kick your bubbled ass, PasadenaTrudy?

YOU KNOW I WOULD DO THAT FOR YOU MY SWEET

[Iggo]

45. Iffen ya know one Jimmie Johnson, ya know th' other.

Edited to add: I scored 70.

[jonno99]

52. 67

[Lady Freedom Returns]

55. Got 65 points.

Hum.... Not to thick a bubble...

[La Lioness Priyanka]

56. 14

[LeftishBrit]

57. Didn't finish the quiz, as most of it was inapplicable to a non-American...

but perhaps one should note that it was constructed by Charles 'Bell Curve' Murray, so may not be terribly reliable.

[Kaleva]

62. The quiz is biased in favor of people with close friends

There were three questions that asked about close friends and I don't have any nor have I ever had any such friends.

[Cheese Sandwich]

64. yes I notices this too.

I feel like this quiz is rather meaningless.

[Phentex]

66. You seem very personable online...

Why would you not have any close friends? (I don't mean to be nosy).

I have friends, very close friends, whose political views don't square with mine. Sometimes it's because I am an atheist. With others, I just don't get it because they say they believe in equal rights and such but then they say they identify as Republicans. Who knows?

[Kaleva]

79. I'm told I'm friendly, helpful, cheerful but I have little desire to hang out with others...

other then my wife. As she's much more outgoing, she goes out and works as I'm 100% disabled and am the stay at home husband. An arrangement that works out very well for us considering our personalities.

[magical thyme]

67. 31 here, but stupid survey. it's very easy to have done none of those things

I don't have tv. Pretty much quit after it went digital. Rarely drink and beer upsets my stomach. Can't be around cigarette smoke; chemical sensitivities will leave me puking til I'm dry heaving. Don't have any close friends. Don't have a husband. Can't afford a truck or I *would* buy one. Nobody in my family was military.

Don't eat out at *any* restaurant with any regularity. Once or twice/year I'll splurge and take the dogs to the outdoor lobster place. Otherwise I occasionally will get takeout at Chinese or Thai or sub shop or convenience store.

Yes, I grew up in the upper middle class and very much in the bubble, but have been poor most of the time that I've been on my own. I live rurally now -- never even heard of some of the chain restaurants, most of the movies or tv shows they listed.

[Blue_Tires]

69. 41... It's kind of a bullshit quiz

Skewed *VERY* heavily towards small town white/male/christian... With some very specific exceptions, I don't see PoC or second-generation immigrants scoring very high on this...


Most bullshit were hanging out with smokers (I'm allergic), beer (I don't drink) movies (meh), TV shows (I mostly watch sports and have no idea how those shows would help me better understand middle America), high school letters (I have multiple and I still don't think it's relevant), hitchhiking (seriously? do black hitchhikers get picked up frequently in the south?) and Branson (come the hell on)...

[noamnety]

71. Woah, hitchhiking is a real thing.

When I was a teen (16-19) I didn't have access to a car, and neither did most of the people in my immediate community. We used to hitchhike regularly. I wasn't living at home by then and if I wanted to buy groceries, I had to walk 4 miles round trip, or hitch a ride.

When we wanted to go someplace for entertainment, that was a longer trip. I hitchhiked with a friend from Mass to NYC for the free Simon and Garfunkel reunion concert in Central Park.

My most recent hitchhiking adventure was in my 40's with a fellow teacher during spring break.

[Blue_Tires]

72. I amended my comment...

Personally, even as a teenager, I looked more like a person drivers would sooner call the cops on than let into their cars, especially in Va.

[noamnety]

74. The last stranger I gave a ride to was a black man.

He technically wasn't hitchhiking - he had just bought a gas can at Walmart and was standing forlornly by his van, so I swung past to check if he needed a lift to and from a gas station, which he did.

I was super glad I gave him a ride - in talking with him, it turned out it was his birthday! Walking all the way with the gallon of gas would have been a sad way to celebrate it.

[Blue_Tires]

75. I've given rides to strangers before

from stranded strangers to car trouble strangers to homeless strangers (in fact, the one time I picked up a homeless stranger, he turned out to be a childhood friend who recognized me instantly-- THAT was a weird, interesting and frequently awkward conversation!)

But still there's a difference between driving someone a couple of miles and hitchhiking, imo... When I think hitchhiking, I'm thinking about a dude walking along the highway in the middle of nowhere trying to get to Memphis or something...

So I still maintain Murray's 50-mile minimum on the survey was antiquated bullshit... He might as well have asked if we have ever stowed away on a boxcar...

[alarimer]

84. I think skewing it that way was sort of the point

White/male/christian is the average or default person in this country. The rest of us (according to some) are the "other." The fact that most people want to change that is threatening to some.

[Mnpaul]

95. Skewed towards "mainstream American culture"

I would like to see someone define that. You probably could do that back in the fifties but today?

Again, it sounds like the creator has limited expose to whatever it is.

[hunter]

73. Got 76 on this one. Don't remember what I got the last time this quiz was posted here.

I don't watch television or smoke.

But bubbles?

Hell, off my meds I don't even exist in this universe.

I suspect my natural state is dumpster diving invisible homeless person.

My utopia would be a tiny house with a garden. An internet connection and a computer I found in the trash would be nice too.

I like living in a place where I can find free computers. People discard computers broken by Microsoft, or they want to play the latest games, etc., etc.; their old computers become my new Linux computers.

I pretty much treat everyone with the same levels of respect, well maybe excepting the uber-wealthy. Those miserable rat bastards ought to be taxed out of existence, we'd all be happier, maybe even the uber-wealthy would be happier.

[ghostsinthemachine]

76. 67, no bubble. thin bubble.

[one_voice]

88. I got a 74

[arcane1]

89. 47. But Charles Murray is going to explain my bubble to me?

[aidbo]

90. Don't Panic, I got a 42!

[MosheFeingold]

92. 65

I am an old lawyer, but I started out as an immigrant who spoke German/Yiddish and worked my way up, starting in the US Army, then police, then NYU.

I retired into a community of less than 10,000.

[benld74]

93. 43,,,just missed the Answer to the Ultimate Question of Life, the Universe and Everything

You got 43 points.

The higher your score, the thinner your bubble. The lower, the more insulated you might be from mainstream American culture.

See below for scores Charles Murray would expect you to get based on the following descriptions.

48–99: A lifelong resident of a working-class neighborhood with average television and movie going habits. Typical: 77.

42–100: A first-generation middle-class person with working-class parents and average television and movie going habits. Typical: 66.

11–80: A first-generation upper-middle-class person with middle-class parents. Typical: 33.

0–43: A second-generation (or more) upper-middle-class person who has made a point of getting out a lot. Typical: 9.

0–20: A second-generation (or more) upper-middle-class person with the television and movie going habits of the upper middle class. Typical: 2.

[Blue_In_AK]

96. 45

Pretty average.