Curious Inquest - Can I Help You With Any More Info?
The other day I participated in a questionnaire. I was even a bit surprised at myself for submitting answers this readily. Remembering the early days of social media networks, there were TONS of question games. Most of them promised to tell you some interesting or funny insight about your personality, be it related to astrological signs, blood types, generations, or your cat's hair color. It took me a while to realize how these questionnaires worked, most of them completely ridiculous in nature, but occasionally there happened to be one or two informative ones regarding your actual habits and preferences.
Data Mining!
By now most of us are probably aware the idea behind these inquests, which can also be the reason why they aren't all over the place any more: It's your personal information they have been after, all along! It's no secret. So I stopped even looking at their click-baity titles, until eventually they stopped popping up all together. Instead, I decided to follow the idea behind this popular meme about selling my own data. Because I continue telling the world about myself, quite a bit actually, by publishing posts in my blog. Everyone who is interested is welcome to them, after all they are available for the public, inmutably saved into the Hive blockchain. Granted, in spite of the HIVE I earn by receiving upvotes you can hardly call this "selling" my data, but at least here I get to decide what I share and what I don't.
10 Questions by @themarkymark
Yesterday however I completely disregarded my usual habit, and I followed through the 10 question inquest created by @themarkymark . I'm still wondering about my actual reasons behind this decision... maybe just to write this post about it? Okay, I can't deny, there is a certain curiosity regarding the questions, the results, and most importantly the purpose behind it all. And having been around the Hive environment for five years now, I have a feeling all these things will be revealed in time. Most likely after the post payout. Until then, let's look at those questions in question:
Getting the Discussions Rolling?
Some of these questions can be good ice-breakers depending on the group and the situation. Asking people about their favorite movies, songs, and especially food is likely to get people talking. So starting out with our favorite sandwich is a strong move to have everyone describe the most mouth-watering combinations of anything you can squeeze between two slices of bread. The one I found most deliciously enticing is the Iberic ham sandwich, to which the respondent @toofasteddie even posted a pic. YUM!!!
image source
But even though the number of comments has surpassed the 100, most people are offering their own answers instead of getting engaged in conversation (at least on this post). That's no criticism, after all, I did the same. Also quite understandably, most replies to people's answers have to do with these tastes in food, music, and movies.
More Serious Questions
Then there are the types of questions that deal with a bit more ... let's say serious aspects of our existence. Our greatest fears, and how we would like to die. In these cases people tend to make fewer comments on each other's answers, though I'm sure we love to read them and compare! Especially the one about our greatest fear made me think... What's the real reason behind this question? Of course, we can start debating what's worse: falling into an elevator shaft or being bitten by an alligator (I don't remember anyone mention any of these two things). But unlike our favorite song, this piece of info offers up quite a bit of power over the respondent. My first thought at this was how the Ministry of Love found out about Wilson's fear of rats in Orwell's 1984.
After this the other, more pleasant questions, such as what we consider to be the closes thing to magic or whether we believe in aliens, started to look less spectacular. Maybe they are all just filler type questions, covering up the real, actual reason for this inquest. What could it be? Maybe an unassuming, benign question about something we keep talking about anyway...?
Looking at the Questioner's Reactions!
I have had no contact with themarkymark , and I can't say that I've figured it out, so I may be completely wrong about it. As such, I can't unveil the mystery, even if I wanted to. However, my speculation suggests that the most important - in fact only important - question of these ten was number two: BTC or ETH? This was also that prompted the questioner to respond whenever someone gave anything other than these two options. Yes, I was one of them! To me neither of the two coins or blockchains is as interesting as Hive. I do have both in my wallet, but the only thing I've been using them for is HODLing like a champ, which is also the only thing I see myself doing with them in the future. HIVE on the other hand is a whole different story... but as themarkymark reminded me (as well as others who went that way), that was not the question. True to that.
A Generally Trusting Atmosphere
As I explained in the beginning, I stopped following up on questionnaires long ago. This time, however, I didn't mind revealing my "greatest fear" (honestly, I'm not even sure if it is indeed what I wrote down. I could just as well have mentioned the alligator or the elevator), my favorite song (to which I was inspired by a music post of a fellow Hivean a few minutes prior), and my view on aliens. HOW COME? you may wonder. Well, most of all because I know that behind these questions is what I believe is a real person, and not a conglomeration of data-mining algorithms. (Though what do I know, really? I believe themarkymark knows his share about algorithms...) I understand, I may be leaving myself open to abuse. However, here on the Hive blockchain my five year experience has taught me to have a greater trust in the workings of inter-user dynamics.
Still, dear questioner whom I mentioned numerous times here already (I hope that won't flood you with notifications): I would really appreciate some feedback, comments, and explanations regarding the purpose of this questionnaire. Whenever the right time comes to reveal these things. I'll remain grateful for it!