Are You (Insert Category Here)?

For anyone who's been trying to finish an important research paper, I'm sure you're familiar with the number of Wikipedia articles out there that you are conveniently not allowed to use. There must be at least thousands, if not tens of thousands. Maybe even millions. But I may have found an internet-ism that is more common and copious than all of the articles-with-an-ambiguous-author-that-you-can't-use-without-making-your-teacher-very-angry put together. Mini-quizzes. It's amazing, really, how many of these little 10- or 15-question quizzes pop up for any given topic. For example, there must be several thousand that are dedicated solely to sorting people into the houses from the Harry Potter books. I was thinking about the number of these things, it put a few questions into my head. "Why are there so many of these things?", for one. Well, there must be a number of people writing them. And not only internet quizzes, either, but quizzes and tests from social circles to social workers' offices. But why the widespread interest--which, by the looks of it, borders on obsession. This was a bit of a tricky one, and I have a feeling that the answer on this one varies from person to person (as does everything else in this corner, really). If the common interest lies in writing these quizzes that inevitably land a person in some category or other, it must be because of a desire to fit people (or allow people to fit themselves) into a shape that is commonly accepted and easy to understand. This seems a bit harsh, maybe, but it's not worded in a harsh way. It sounds harsh because it can be interpreted as an accusation of dependance on categories in order to comprehend the world around us. It's not intended that way. If you think about it, we use categories all the time. "The trees are green." "My family is German." So categories aren't necessarily a bad thing. The destructive ones get publicized, of course (racism and homophobia being prime examples), and they tend to turn the word into a criticism. As ever, though, it seems a good idea to question the boundaries that we set up for ourselves, especially in our minds. Because if you take a quiz online, chances are that the only person who's going to see the answer is you. The results of these quizzes don't usually go anywhere, either. This means that the categories that you get--in the form of the results of the quiz--aren't going anywhere except into your own head, to be stored somewhere with your collection of self perceptions. Is it fulfilling to get the results back from one of these tests and see what the answers to the multiple choice question added up to be? Entertaining to see how the maker of the quiz thought of someone who would answer the same way you did? If you agree with the descriptors applied to the category, is it a triumphant feeling? That you came across in the way you intended? And here are your results: you are obviously one of the group of humans that both understand English (or have the means to translate English into your own language), that you have the patience to read this all the way through, and are probably seething at my impertinence. Deal with it. If you did actually like this, please comment, though. Otherwise you will be indistinguishable from the other readers who are shaking their heads and scowling at me. Thanks