Do You Live in a Bubble?

I got 43. Much of that score I owe to my childhood in rural upstate New York. I definitely have more privilege in my life now. I try to stay aware of it and how it is color my perceptions.

I just went back through the quiz and read the “Why this question” sections for each. Very interesting.

I got 29.

I received a 55.

@zenvelo You bubbleless person, you!

I received a 43 also, but this is most likely due to living in rural areas the last 25 years. No, I do not go fishing nor stock my fridge with large quantities of mass produced american beer, nor do i watch ‘Ellen”, “Dr. Phil” or “Honey BooBoo.” Gak! lol

I got a 29 also.

I got a 51. I don’t get out much.

@chyna 51 is good. Means you are not a liberal elite NPR listener but a true liver in the heartland.

@zenvelo‘s bubble is a big one, @janbb.

46. My life took so many crazy turns though, I don’t know if I’m normal! I think that most people don’t move far out of the stratosphere they were raised in. But I sure as hell did!

61,
I’m actually not surprised at the overall low scores here. I was completely honest when taking it.

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

I got 17 (although I’ll be honest I’ve never lived in the US at all so most of the questions didn’t really apply – if i didn’t know Jimmie Johnson was a NASCAR driver then I’d guess it would have been even lower).

47

The blurb accurately describes my situation.

My wife says I do not live in the world, but in my head, and that is the most impenetrable bubble of all.

I couldn’t survive being annoyed by it and not knowing how to even answer to make it through. How do I know how many people in my neighborhood had college degrees during the years I lived in? Any neighborhood with a fair number of people under 22 years old, probably so even if it were wealthy or whatever. Seems like another sociological poll that steeped deeply in assumption stew.

@lightlyseared. I thought he was a either a football or baseball player.

@ARE_you_kidding_me what did you mean by your comment?
Jimmie Johnson makes sub sandwiches…oh. Wait.

Because of the obvious fluther bubbles.

Meh, what’s so great about “mainstream” anyway? I’ve always preferred to not be mainstream. My life has always been 50 shades of gray. lol

@zenvelo: Sorry. I was reading the description in the box “42–100 – a first generation middle class person with working class parents and average television and movie going habits.”

What obvious Fluther bubbles @ARE_you_kidding_me? What are you talking about?

We have some far left liberals. The people I see and know who are more centered and open-minded (even if that means being open to some conservative ideas) tend to be the least likely to live in a bubble. Extreme left or extreme right usually = bubble.

^ I consider myself very open minded but do not affiliate with any political party. I am a self defined “Hippie Cowgirl.” That kinda says it all. I love rural living, saddling up and hitting the trail with a saddlebag full of Hummus dip, french bread and wine.

Not chew and Coors Light. Maybe a little weed to enhance the scenery and ride. lol
I don’t own a gun, I pack binoculars to take aim at the wild life.
I am Liberally liberal and conservatively conservative depending on the issue, but mostly I consider myself liberally apolitical. lol

I’m a liberal elitist NPR listener.

I got 64.

I’m pretty sure it’s only that low because I admitted to catching a few episodes of Ellen and seeing The Martian on DVD, and I’m no longer an Evangelical Christian.

^^ I actually was thinking if you responded it would score you high. There is being political because it fits you and it is what you believe and there is being political because you just don’t know any better. I can’t say that was a very good test either though. If I included more years living “at the poverty level” I would have scored higher. Four years of ramen noodles and shitty roomates in college should not count.

The questions specifically state college doesn’t count.

I think mine was 46. I took it this morning.

I actually now live in a place that is unofficially (or maybe it’s officially) nicknamed “The Bubble” and it is an insulated bubble where most people don’t work and have fun all day.

Well, OK, @ARE_you_kidding_me. I just didn’t understand what you were implying when you said, “I was completely honest when taking it.” I didn’t know if you were suggesting that others weren’t honest, in order to get whatever score. I was honest in taking mine, too. I did have to say “Yes, I worked on a factory floor.” I had my degree at the time too. It was only for a few weeks, andIt left me aching all over at the end of the day, but I answered “Yes,” to both questions. I don’t know how much that influenced it.

To me it looks like most of the people here are closer to the median range than “Low.”

72

Might have been higher, but I don’t drink and I don’t own a television. Then again, I’ve only watched Dr. Phil for research purposes, so I probably got an unearned point or two there. For the most part, my score seems to reflect growing up poor.

It also seems to value growing up in a variety of environments and situations which was the case for me. I just took it again to be sure I answered with respect to college correctly and I missed “living in a rural area” and it scored me at a 67. Interesting concept and worth thinking about but pretty flawed I.M.O.

“The higher your score, the thinner your bubble. The lower, the more insulated you might be from mainstream American culture.” Can some one explain what that means? The thinner your bubble the more you’re in line with the average? Or the more easily you take offense?

61

A thinner bubble means you are more in tune with reality and not just aware of your immediate surroundings, situation or social class.

OK. Well, then I find my result to be pretty spot on. I started out life in a world that didn’t know of poverty and struggle. My folks knew about it, but they created a world for us where that didn’t exist.
Then, as an adult, I got thrown headlong into that poverty and struggle, so 46 sounds about right.

@Dutchess_III: The question was “Have you ever walked on a factory floor?”

Have you ever walked on a factory floor? Not worked. The explanation given in the “why was this question asked” section (pop-up) was more detailed but clearly points to walking, not working.

Edited: This is what he wrote as an explanation:

“I was prompted to use this question because of a personal experience.

In the mid-1980s, my sponsor for a speech at a local college in Wichita was the owner of a factory that made cardboard boxes, and my host took me to see it. It was fascinating — the ingenious machines, the noise, the speed, the organization.

Then it struck me that every product I used was made in such a place — in the aggregate, thousands of them, constituting the world that made my life possible — and until then I had never seen even a glimpse of it except as a small child on a single visit to Maytag Company’s assembly line.

My visit to the box factory was a quarter of a century ago, and I haven’t been on another factory floor since.”

I edited above.

56

It’s a privilege check

It’s about having life experiences that may help you empathise with lifestyles that are different than what you’re accustomed to.

There was a politician just the other day that suggested if poor people stopped buying cell phones they’d be able to afford healthcare.

That guy would score INCREDIBLY low on this test, judging by his sheer disconnect from the economic reality of normal people.

I think this particular test was lacking but viewpoints such as this are better than a “Privilege check” privilege does not account for those living in a bubble because they have never ventured out of wherever they are be it middle class suburbia or inner city slums. I consider myself to be quite privileged at this point in life but it certainly did not start out that way. I really hate “privilege checking” I don’t think that it is much more than a gimmick used in arguments, it does not tell the whole story.

I think the test is biased as t living in rural areas.
My area is quite diverse but rural living is often associated with less well rounded or intelligent types.

Most people who grew up rural and stayed there are the definition of bubble.

37 and I would identify as follows:

A first-generation upper-middle-class person with middle-class parents who has made a point of getting out a lot.

I would be higher except I went to a vocational high school and worked on a farm for a few years – so my exposure to the average white guy is pretty high despite living in Boston.

I think you’re missing the definition of bubble being used in this instance.

Yes, many rural people have never left their own town. That is true.

But those people far outnumber the privileged wealthy and upper middle class who have the luxuries of good jobs doing things that make you happy, and good schools and taxicabs and Chinese food delivery and Wi-Fi.

Just wonder if it is clear to folks that the higher the score you have, the less you live in a bubble – by which they seem to mean that you are an elitest coastal person. If your numbers are high, it means you’ve been exposed to more rural, working class or popular culture experiences. I don’t watch television or follow Nascar but I did grow up on a farm and i’ve been poor. This doesn’t mean that I can’t empathize with a wide range of experiences or that I lack them and it doesn’t mean that I’m close minded.

As @Seek points out they are defining bubble very narrowly for this “quiz” – there are many ways to be enbubbled.

I understand the angle they are after, I also think that it goes both ways, beyond this little test.

The quiz clearly assumes a lot about those who will be taking it. Otherwise, the questions would have to be asked more broadly. So it’s not really about how in tune you are with reality, but rather how in tune you are with a particular reality—viz., the reality of the average American life. Moreover, the quiz is concerned primarily with class differences and upper class ignorance. It’s not even trying to diagnose the potential cultural isolation of those who have always been members of the lower economic class.

Note that the description of the quiz more or less says exactly this, though it also specifies a focus on the average life of white Americans.

@SavoirFaire Yes, it doesn’t talk about racial or multicultural experiences at all.

@jca If you answer “Yes, I have walked on a factory floor,” then another question pops up asking,“Was it related to your job?’”
Yes — job entailed routine visits to factory floors
Yes — worked on a factory floor
No

Have you never, ever walked a factory floor? It’s cool, especially today.

Scored a 66 – but as others have said, most of the “points” are earned growing up poor and working a variety of jobs.

The title seems misleading.

I got a 46.
There’s not much about the news services you use to keep informed or your use of social media.

Here’s my problem with this quiz (and I’m going to personalize here for a moment)...

I come from a family of blue-collar, wholesale florists the majority of whom were alcoholics (or gamblers, or addicts). My great grandparents were immigrants. My father, uncles, and cousin were in the military. My other uncle and cousins were in law enforcement. I studied a trade in high school. Was a “vokee”.

Then I decided to pursue a different life. First person in my family to go to college (and paid for it myself). I purposely don’t drink or gamble. I made a point of traveling and seeing the world. But most of all, I busted my ass.

So fuck your bubble.

Haven’t lived in the States for close to five years, haven’t seen a full episode of any of the TV shows mentioned, haven’t seen any of the movies mentioned, have no idea who Jimmie Johnson is and I would probably fail miserably on all the questions in the pop culture sections of Trivial Pursuit, but I got a 53 anyway. Personally, I think I’m quite insulated from American culture and quite happy to be so.

It seems to me that it is driven by loudmouth braggarts filled with delusional confidence and empty of substance, celebrities of little achievement obsessed with themselves, snowflakes whose only way to get attention is to claim to be offended by words used everywhere else in the world and obsessed with ideas such as horseback riding is cruelty to animals and easily creeped out by such trivialities as people who give personal names to inanimate objects, and weak, spineless idiots who are afraid of emotional and physical encounters and because of this cowardly fear make the sickening, hypocritical claim that they are not judgmental and fear making judgments against the obvious asses around them, and now wonder why their society is being dominated by bullies and an immature, bullying president, and all the ignorant fucks in general.

Fuck that. I don’t want to be anywhere near that shit.

That’s what that shithole of a society looks like from offshore.

I think it’s about whether upper middle and upper class people who live outside of the Bible Belt have any clue what it’s like to be blue color in the Bible Belt. There are many places along the continuum of poor, uneducated, religious, and blue color, to graduate school, wealthy, and white collar. All sorts of different combinations can happen. When I studied sociology, a middle class salary and college education, bumped you up to upper-middle class sociology-economically. A high school degree making a very high salary might even get you into the upper class, but it was broken into the lower-upper and upper-upper. No college degree made you “different” even if you earned the money. The lower-upper was also reserved for new money. The upper-upper was generational money.

It has to do with psychographics, which this quiz measures. How you spend your time for instance. Blue collar guy makes $75k and he goes fishing for rest, relaxation, and sport. White collar guy makes $75k and he plays golf or a long weekend at the beach. The blue collar guy drinks beer regularly, white collar drinks wine or mixed drinks. That sort of thing. It’s not perfectly pat of course.

I think it’s true both groups are in their own worlds, and this affects their perspectives and opinions on life.

Bubble means protected from the outside.

Both groups, if they have no experience with the other group, really can’t imagine what that life is really like.

@Espiritus_Corvus – Damn, my friend, that can’t feel good. Can I buy you a beverage or something? I guess it’s good to let it out?

I think the point of the quiz would be, if that’s all you see you’re probably not seeing rural white America, which is really the framework for this. The theory is that they’re under represented in the media and so if you’re not living in it, you’re not being exposed.

We’re pretty cool (we being rural America.)

@funkdaddy It feels great from 1,500 miles away. I see rural,white America just fine from here. The problem is that they are a minority with a small voice, but what makes them so innocent of the absurdities mentioned above? WTF? Are you so delusional as to think that the “Heartland people” are just naive farmers of the past? Salt of the Earth? Fuck that. What world do you live in? That whole thing began disappearing quickly after WWII. The whole society is driven by the same media now. It is now a homogenous mess of assholes of the like found nowhere else.

Hillbilly Elegy by J.D. Vance is an excellent memoir of a kid whose family came from the hollers of Kentucky to the rust belt and the culture he was raised in. It sheds a light on some of the differences between urban coastal Americans and those in the heartland. Reading is not the same as living another’s experiences but it does help lessen the bubble effect.

Yes, Jan. It is an elegy. What does that tell you?

@Espiritus_Corvus Shit, that’s what I would think someone on the outside would see. There are plenty of us left with some grit, at least until all the get in, get it done gen-Xers are outnumbered by the millenial snowflakes and their PC bullshit.

^^ I would love to believe that, but I don’t see a lot of evidence yet.

You won’t unless you are physically here. All news and entertainment cater to millenials. I can’t even watch the fucking discovery channel anymore.

I got a 58. My take away is just let the test creator take it for me. The questions were very leading.

@Cruiser They were.

@janbb I got the impression it was specifically designed to separate the white collar from the blue collar working class. Somebody like me who has lived parts of their life in all the classes skews their much expected results.

Agree.

61

my experiences getting to that are also probably what lead me to what would be considered extreme-left in the US

I might be happier inside the bubble

@ARE_you_kidding_me In re: to your remark about rural being the bubbliest bubble.
Not necessarily. I grew up middle class in a large city and lived in other large cities until I moved to the country in my early 30’s. I raised my daughter rural and she now lives and works in the capitol city here in CA.

We’re not talking midwest bible belt where the bubble may be extra burst resistant. There is no one rural size fits all. My area is home to eclectic bohemian types, old time land owners, cowboy types, lots of big city transplants, very diverse demographic. Not born and raised on a corn farm in Iowa for the last 7 generations. A lot of rural people come from very diverse backgrounds. I wanted to move out of the high priced, crime ridden, rat race and find some peace and serenity and live in a natural environment.

@BellaB Your answer made me laugh!

I could envision some people I know (know personally, not from Fluther) who are into fishing, Nascar, think Applebees or Olive Garden is a good restaurant, love to get breakfast at Denny’s.

@Dutchess_II: Oh, I went back and saw what you meant about the factory floor. I was on several but not for work.

@Seek “That guy would score INCREDIBLY low on this test, judging by his sheer disconnect from the economic reality of normal people.”

What is normal to you?? What do you consider this disconnect from him or anyone to be from what you perceive as normal?

http://imgur.com/a/SEkFJ

44

I’m not a fan of mainstream United States culture so this is probably for the best.

I found it very very strange that there was nothing on that test about travel habits. I think that pops one’s bubble more efficiently than anything, depending on the type of travel.

@jca People you know who like those things who grew up on the east coast with educated parents?

I eat at Olive Garden sometimes, but I only get very specific things there. The pasta is horrible; it’s overcooked, and appetizers have too much oil, I could go on.

Applebees is the worst of all those moderate chains, I barely think of it as I high enough to be called moderate, I’ve been there twice and avoid it. I’d rather go to McDonalds than Applebees. We do go to Chili’s and Ruby Tuesday’s, which are in a similar category.

Denny’s I go to on rare occasion when traveling, but in general we much prefer somewhere else. We would rather a diner with good reviews or a Jewish deli.

My husband loves car racing, but he’s a formula 1 guy, not NASCAR.

We don’t fish, we go to a museum, or drive to a scenic area and maybe have lunch out, or play a sport, if it’s just for a one day activity.

I think there are these little subtle difference that give away our “group” affiliations. I too have friends who do all the things you named. If they do two or more they didn’t grow up on the east coast, or their parents didn’t have college degrees if they are east coasters, even if my friends do. Many of my friends who do those things are not from the northeast coast, or southeast Florida.

The food is a huge give away. Recently, on a Q, @darth_algar and I were going back and forth about food, and I said something about Jewish people not eating what he was talking about (I don’t mean kosher, I mean just not customarily) and I don’t remember what exactly we were talking about, but he said something about it not mattering, and my thought and response was basically, you don’t know we (Jews) make fun of it, practically look down on it, when goys eat it. I don’t remember if it was ketchup on a hot dog, or mayo on a bologna sandwich.

The east coast is still very in touch with their Italian and European roots. The bread is delicious, deli meats are sliced from the real piece of meat, and not something formed into a cube or cylinder shape, the pasta al dente, the veggies sautéed not boiled to death, all of that is difficult to come by in some parts of the country unless you have quite a bit of money.

No, @JLeslie, people who are totally blue collar. I should be careful saying that because on another question, I was criticized by referring to someone as “blue collar, hunter, beer drinker.”
https://www.fluther.com/199275/what-would-you-do-if-someone-posted-something-on-fb-that/

I think bubbles come in all sorts. I also think the more money you have the easier it is to insulate yourself and therefore your beliefs. Anyone not exposed and open to new ideas is in a bubble. They are often naive and asked ’ what colour is the sky in your world?’

@cazzie I agree with your earlier point about travel and that particularly living in another country for a time can help lessen the bubble effect. And also that there are all kinds of bubbles.

Travel does broaden ones horizons usually, but I’ve noticed that closed minded people tend to travel and still see the world in a very critical “us and them” way, while more open minded people travel, and take a piece of their travel back home with them.

Moreover, I think the reason the “elite” bubble is different than other bubbles is the people with money tend to have more power in the country, and are making decisions for other people.

@jca I understand.

@jca I should be careful saying that because on another question, I was criticized by referring to someone as “blue collar, hunter, beer drinker.”

This is incorrect. I questioned your phrase “very blue collar.” I was trying to understand what you meant by “very”. I thought it was strange to suggest there are varying degrees of being blue collar. That is all. Your details suggested to me that you were looking down on blue collar workers.

@jca One more thing, sorry too late to edit my last response. You were describing a person you knew that abuses cats. I was questioning your use of blue collar to describe him. Look at it this way, If I described my rapist as “coming from a very white collar family, beer drinking frat boy” doesn’t the very white collar description seem out of place and a bit judgemental? I just felt that the occupation of the person being accused of such terrible things was irrelevant.

10 – major bubble! I make very little money right now, but I do come from an upper middle class family, have a PhD, and currently live in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

@answerjill Time to move to the Midwest, go fishing and work in a factory methinks!

@janbb – I feel like my love of country music should count for something here…

Haha..I have lived in the country for 25 years but am not a country music fan at all. I do like a few of the old classic artists like Hank Williams and Marty Robbins and Johnny Cash but I’m an old time rock-n-roller. See, there is no one size fits all. I live in cowboy and redneck land but I’m the old hippie in the hills that defies geographic stereotypes. Uh oh, rednecks and hippies, not PC, oh well, too late. lol

Hear that lonesome whippoorwill
He sounds too blue to fly
The midnight train is whining low
I’m so lonesome I could cry

I’ve never seen a night so long
When time goes crawling by
The moon just went behind the clouds
To hide its face and cry

Did you ever see a robin weep
When leaves begin to die
That means he’s lost the will to live
I’m so lonesome I could cry

The silence of a falling star
Lights up a purple sky
And as I wonder where you are
I’m so lonesome I could cry

Yeah. Good stuff.

Lets hear the original shall we? Hank Williams 1949 oh yeah, good stuff!

www.youtube.com/watch?v=4WXYjm74WFI

^^Thank you. You can really hear the lonesome in that boy.