View Full Version : How Big is Your Bubble?
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/economy/do-you-live-in-a-bubble-a-quiz-2
Thought this "Do You Live in A Bubble" quiz would be fun for those of who have participated in discussions on privilege and the lack of it. My friend who posted it on Facebook said, "I have no earthly idea what this means" and maybe you'll feel the same, but FWIW, I got a 44.
iris lilies
3-12-18, 8:49pm
We have taken this before. This time my score was 44 but it isnt accurate. I am not first generation middle class, I am middle middle middle class from a couple of generations..
I think my last score was around 33.jp1 and I had the same score.
This is the test that bae amd Alan go,head to head on about who is a bigger hillbilly at origin.
They should have said, about neighborhoods and towns, did we live there as adults. As a kid I lived in small towns and surrounded by people with no college degrees. That generation of people didnt have a lot of degrees.
I got a 25 but I come from a weird background - two hillbilly parents who ended up with professional degrees (physician/pharmacist) and moved within those circles. Then they divorced and both became alcoholics (sigh). So... I grew up in upper income environments with very wealthy, old money friends but retained some of the lower class experiences my parents grew up with and couldn't shed. I have empathy and experience for both.
Williamsmith
3-12-18, 9:15pm
73.......might explain why the first instrumental I learned on guitar was Dueling Banjos.
Oh, shoot! Gee, I do remember that test, but I thought it was different. I'll have to do a search and see how I came out! And then I should find a quiz to determine how bad my memory's getting!
ETA: Here's the previous thread/quiz. It is a little different, but definitely same idea:
http://www.simplelivingforum.net/showthread.php?15015-test-about-privilege-bae-and-rob-will-love-it&highlight=quiz
Williamsmith
3-12-18, 9:19pm
So this was really a dementia test ......I’ll score high on that too!
mschrisgo2
3-12-18, 9:37pm
56.
ApatheticNoMore
3-13-18, 2:12am
You got 4 points.
The higher your score, the thinner your bubble. The lower, the more insulated you might be from mainstream American culture.
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.
Yea I live in a bubble alright, and my latest hobby is hanging out at the unemployment office (eh they have support groups and classes on job seeking and stuff there). Wow I feel so insulated from any harsh realities and stuff ... I know, could be worse. But these bubbles don't seem to be champagne (Perrier perhaps ...).
The categories also seem unrealistic, an upper middle class person with middle class parents, a middle class person with working class parents. Geez, haven't they ever heard of DOWNWARD MOBILITY? Because there seems a serious upward mobility bias in those categories there, and I don't think that's very realistic these days. Where is the precariat millenial with middle class parents?
Anyway I'm not really from the upper middle class (I guess the breadwinner was a scientist, if that's what you call a lab tech - they can and do do original research). I have NEVER BEEN in the upper middle class (middle class I'll grant), my partner is not upper middle class. In fact if even one of these was the case life would not be such a struggle all the time, but it is, but obviously it is often worse (many people don't even have shelter etc.). But no I don't own a t.v. and I watch ZERO movies. I'm mostly kind of anti-media if that's an upper middle class category I guess, I guess us very well off people just read books or something? Well I do :)
I got a 68. I gotta concur with ApatheticNoMore; downward mobility is an interesting vector in all this. Most of my "non-Bubble" points come from how I have lived after a horrible divorce, which was a rapid elevator ride down in social mobility.
Like with ANM, tests like this leave a bitter taste. . . (from the test, not ANM, lol.)
I got a 68. I gotta concur with ApatheticNoMore; downward mobility is an interesting vector in all this. Most of my "non-Bubble" points come from how I have lived after a horrible divorce, which was a rapid elevator ride down in social mobility.
Like with ANM, tests like this leave a bitter taste. . . (from the test, not ANM, lol.)
While I certainly take this quiz and all quizzes with a grain of salt, I think maybe what they're getting at, at least the way I see it, is the more our life experiences have enabled us to traverse socio-economic boundaries, the more likely we are to be aware of them (duh). In other words, you may know all about Paris--you may have studied it in books and seen all the photos and the art and architecture, but you really don't KNOW Paris until you actually set foot in it. Similarly, you may know there are people who live differently from you, but limited experience in actually iving as others do will keep you from really knowing their reality.
Why does it even matter if you live in a bubble? Not sure, other than it makes it harder to understand and appreciate all sides of the prism of human experience, or to even realize there are other sides out there. I'll admit that living in the Northeast my whole life put me in a bubble, which is probably why I got a relatively low score.
Another reason for the low score is I could not say I've seen one TV or movie on the lists they gave.
Scoring You got 74 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.
While I certainly take this quiz and all quizzes with a grain of salt, I think maybe what they're getting at, at least the way I see it, is the more our life experiences have enabled us to traverse socio-economic boundaries, the more likely we are to be aware of them (duh). In other words, you may know all about Paris--you may have studied it in books and seen all the photos and the art and architecture, but you really don't KNOW Paris until you actually set foot in it. Similarly, you may know there are people who live differently from you, but limited experience in actually iving as others do will keep you from really knowing their reality.
Why does it even matter if you live in a bubble? Not sure, other than it makes it harder to understand and appreciate all sides of the prism of human experience, or to even realize there are other sides out there. I'll admit that living in the Northeast my whole life put me in a bubble, which is probably why I got a relatively low score.
Another reason for the low score is I could not say I've seen one TV or movie on the lists they gave.
I guess what I was trying to say is that the underlying methodology of the quiz seems very flawed to me. The assumption that living in a rural environment makes you a rube, for example, or service in the Armed Forces is inconsistent with higher education. Things like that. They are defining the bubble from a very narrow viewpoint, with questions like, "did you have any friends in high school who got C's, even though they tried hard." It seemed so narrow and snobbish.
I don't know, from a market research demographic point of view, what did you make of the test?
I got a 40 but I am definitely not upper middle class.
I guess what I was trying to say is that the underlying methodology of the quiz seems very flawed to me. The assumption that living in a rural environment makes you a rube, for example, or service in the Armed Forces is inconsistent with higher education. Things like that. They are defining the bubble from a very narrow viewpoint, with questions like, "did you have any friends in high school who got C's, even though they tried hard." It seemed so narrow and snobbish.
I don't know, from a market research demographic point of view, what did you make of the test?
I'm not a social scientist so I can't speak to the assumptions behind those questions. I'd love to speak to the people who put the quiz together to find out. From a market research/demographic point of view, I simply find it interesting. When we do segmentation studies, we ask those types of questions, but since I'm in pharmaceuticals and not consumer packaged goods, I can't really say that those questions are typical of the ones we ask in order to "bucket" people for the purpose of marketing to them.
36 but I'm not upper middle class in terms of my spending. I do have some of the snobbery though (don't care for much of what is on TV, don't care for chain restaurants).
This test has no scientific validity. It doesn't even ask your zip code.
Scored 50. Not being from the US created some challenges in accuracy. I had to choose between Richard Branson and the entertainment complex - they were equal to my knowledge of them as an example. I am a rural resident continuously by choice of my family and my decision.
I have been really poor but was fortunate enough to overcome the deficit due to a combination of reasons. Maybe my lack of understanding of value of the test indicates something.
This is the test that bae amd Alan go,head to head on about who is a bigger hillbilly at origin.
I don't know about bae but in my case, hillbilly isn't the right word, growing up I heard multiple references to 'poor white trash' directed towards my extended family, and that is probably more accurate as a label. I grew up in the kind of poor, stunted environment that made it necessary for me to leave home at 17 because I knew it was the only way to find and perhaps have the ability to grasp the slightest opportunity.
The military was my salvation, on the one hand it required me to subvert myself to higher authority and go into harm's way upon someone else's whim, but it also encouraged me to be all I could be and provided training and educational opportunities I would have missed otherwise.
I get a kick now out of the occasional inference that those of us who finally enjoy a solid middle class or higher background are only able to do so because of our "privilege". I think the tight little enclosed bubble they enjoyed throughout life didn't prepare them to see what it takes from others not hindered by early comforts to get to that point. I've never heard that term used by anyone who doesn't use it in regards to race or gender or as a means to separate themselves from their perceived enemy. I often chuckle to myself because I know something they don't and probably never will, that the privilege they disdain is not always genetic but since they didn't earn their own, the concept is unfathomable.
Sorry for the rant.
Williamsmith
3-13-18, 9:51am
I would have scored higher than 73 if I was a chain smoker and gulped Iron city Beer. Apparently bourbon is a sign of affluence and insular status. My exposure to NASCAR definitely elevated my game. And working in a steel mill gave me street cred.
I got 37
Have to ask...did Branson show up on everyone's quiz? I should get bonus Hillbilly points for living here 29 years!
catherine
3-13-18, 10:29am
I don't know about bae but in my case, hillbilly isn't the right word, growing up I heard multiple references to 'poor white trash' directed towards my extended family, and that is probably more accurate as a label. I grew up in the kind of poor, stunted environment that made it necessary for me to leave home at 17 because I knew it was the only way to find and perhaps have the ability to grasp the slightest opportunity.
The military was my salvation, on the one hand it required me to subvert myself to higher authority and go into harm's way upon someone else's whim, but it also encouraged me to be all I could be and provided training and educational opportunities I would have missed otherwise.
I get a kick now out of the occasional inference that those of us who finally enjoy a solid middle class or higher background are only able to do so because of our "privilege". I think the tight little enclosed bubble they enjoyed throughout life didn't prepare them to see what it takes from others not hindered by early comforts to get to that point. I've never heard that term used by anyone who doesn't use it in regards to race or gender or as a means to separate themselves from their perceived enemy. I often chuckle to myself because I know something they don't and probably never will, that the privilege they disdain is not always genetic but since they didn't earn their own, the concept is unfathomable.
Sorry for the rant.
A couple of random thoughts:
As different as we all are on this board, thinking about it, I can say that all of us are very strong on self-determination.
This test, now that I am rereading it, isn't as much about privilege as about how well you fit into the wider mainstream culture.
I can see how it's aggravating, Alan, to be accused of privilege as a rationale for your success, rather than real reason for it, which was hard work and drive.
As liberal as I am, I definitely get really aggravated by family members who call on me with expectations--they feel "entitled." I'm thinking of my brother, who by all accounts should be labeled "privileged" because he is white, male, and grew up in the same house I did, with educated parents and grandparents and lots of opportunity. Like Alan, he joined the service, but unlike Alan, he bailed early and embarked on a life of excess and waste. From there the VA enabled him for 40 years, providing free food, shelter and medical care. As a result, he has reached a point in his life in which he feels utterly entitled. He has told me "you have a problem" if I have don't have the money to give him.
Not sure what I'm getting at. But I think it's this: "privileged" is a word that is often used to denigrate white, middle-class and above, educated, mostly male. "Entitled" is word that is used to denigrate those of the other end of the spectrum--poor, less educated, mostly minority. Interesting, when many of us have been on both sides of the divide at one point or another. Makes those words kind of pointless.
Dude, mine was LOW, 28. I pretty much knew I lived in a bubble, this is more than I thought. However I wonder about this, as other people have. My 'bubble' is very thin in other ways, my neighborhood is highly immigrant, I know people who speak a variety of languages, I work helping people in a variety of income levels, etc. However my taste in popular culture and not drinking (or owning a truck) really cost me points. I did grow up solidly middle class which also affects me.
So I guess that knowing immigrants and living in a neighborhood of diversity is not what they are testing, it seems more about economic and social class.
Williamsmith
3-13-18, 11:23am
Dude, mine was LOW, 28. I pretty much knew I lived in a bubble, this is more than I thought. However I wonder about this, as other people have. My 'bubble' is very thin in other ways, my neighborhood is highly immigrant, I know people who speak a variety of languages, I work helping people in a variety of income levels, etc. However my taste in popular culture and not drinking (or owning a truck) really cost me points. I did grow up solidly middle class which also affects me.
So I guess that knowing immigrants and living in a neighborhood of diversity is not what they are testing, it seems more about economic and social class.
Think of it as a “Deplorable Scale Rating”. I however think the test could be more accurate if it asked a question about firearms ownership. I could have scored above 100.
I resent having my success being attributed to privilege when it is in fact due to blind luck and fortunate happenstance.
I am totally embarrassed. Got a 19. Yet, I feel I can understand the issues of those above and below me.
I am totally embarrassed. Got a 19. Yet, I feel I can understand the issues of those above and below me.
Okay I don't have the only really low number. It sounds like across the board (high and low numbers) that we really question the validity of the test. I think it is good to realize that I had a real benefit as I became an adult with my background. I saw some first generation college students when I was in school struggle with the culture if they came from lower income families, but also some others who struggled because they had never washed their own clothes or had to live on a budget or not have someone rescue them. I was in a nice middle of the road place going into college, I knew that in an extreme emergency I had family that could help and I also knew limits and budgets (and did my own laundry but that was only because I was so stubborn in high school that I refused to let my mom do my laundry, she shrunk some concert t-shirts, I had to be equally stubborn to cook because she still to this day does not want me in the kitchen!)
Teacher Terry
3-13-18, 3:11pm
I scored a 49. YOu can have a professional job and be out earned by a blue collar worker. Many blue collar workers are middle class or better. My parents didn't have a lot of $ initially but my Dad became a tool grinder and by his 40's was making more $ then the city attorney.
I got a 27 this time around. I guess i'm getting bubblier as the days go by! Perhaps it's because we recently went to Iron Horse winery and tasted the bubbly wines. If going wine tasting 3 or 4 times a year doesn't put me on the fancy-pants end of the socio-economic spectrum I'm not sure what more I need to be doing.
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