Do you live in a bubble? NPR quiz

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

That’s probably accurate. Things it could have asked that would have made my score higher. Do you live in a majority minority neighborhood or city? I do. Do you go to the local Y and talk the Republican weightlifters every week? I do. Have you lived in a foreign country that wasn’t just a semester abroad? I have - six years total as an adult and 12 years as a kid. Have you seen an animal killed that you then ate? I have. Chicken and game.

I watch very little TV and don’t eat at chain restaurants. We did eat at IHOP regularly when the kids were young and sometimes east at similar type places when the family is together so maybe I should have checked off Waffle House. I only know one regular smoker and he stinks. I stand as far away from him as I can. I did have friends in Germany and France who smoked. Though even there it was getting less common.

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“@busdriver11 You and your husband are the only people on the thread that outscored me so far. It’s weird because I grew up in Brooklyn, NY. I only been living in Georgia for 8 years. Like you I think it would have been higher if I knew who Jimmie was. I don’t follow sports I wouldn’t have known any sports figure they put up there”

@sensation723, though I did not look at their methodology, I suspect some questions are very heavily weighted, such as military service, and living in poverty, both as an adult and child. Probably weighted much higher than the Waffle House. Some of the questions seem rather silly, and for some people, the Waffle House would be a luxury.

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I rated 46. While reading the questions I understand where they are coming from (ie that people who grow up in urban, white collar areas won’t understand people from elsewhere), I think the questions themselves make assumptions that for example blue collar people spend their time in chain restaurants whereas white collar people eat at fancy schmancy places, whereas I eat at a lot of humble places that simply reflect where i live (Greek diners, Asian take out places, etc) that a wide range of people eat at. I think this may assume things that on a broad scale have correlations but also may be based on misperceptions that somehow someone who doesn’t follow Nascar, eat at Denny’s or smoke can’t know what other people are like or feeling.

To be honest, I kind of question the methodology of this or the questions. Hanging out with someone who is smoking? I have friends who smoke, but because of the culture of where i live and work, people tend not to smoke inside, a lot of them even in their own homes (if this was when I was growing up, would have been very, very different). And while smoking is a lot more common among blue collar/rural people, it is kind of insulting to me they use that as a harbinger of attitudes.

Likewise, while I only did manual labor during the summers (working construction), I know damn well how hard it is on people who do those kind of jobs and while I am white collar, I also am someone who is in direct opposition to many people I work with or live around, I am very pro labor of all kinds, and while my dad was an engineer, my family in many ways was blue collar in background, my dad grew up during the depression, my grandfather was a stone mason…

And while I never served in the military, I know and respect many people who did…

To be honest, I think the questions themselves reflect bias. I know a lot of people considered ‘blue collar’ who never eat in chain restaurants, and for example, in my neck of the woods the Waffle House and Dennys don’t exist. With TV shows, I watch shows like NCIS (Gibbs is my role model and idol), I just don’t happen to watch the shows they mention, since when are those shows representative of anything? Not to mention there are a lot of shows on Cable that are widely watched, too…I also watch football games, how come they don’t mention that?

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These days, it is difficult to hang out with smokers because there are so few public places where it is permitted. I have one friend who is a smoker. He’s a Vietnam vet (3 tours) and we meet outdoors where he can smoke and it won’t trigger my asthma too badly.

When I was younger, most of the people that I knew who smoked were radical intellectual types.

So I’m also skeptical about smoking as a proxy measure for class insularity.

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I got 57. Seems about right. I will say that if you live in Louisiana, the parade question is pretty meaningless :slight_smile:

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The quiz should be relabeled “Are you white, blue collar, and non-urban?” not “Do you live in a bubble?”. If you are a minority raised in the inner city, you wouldn’t score very high on the quiz either.

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This question might also reflect region-specific bubbles. http://www.pewforum.org/2015/11/03/u-s-public-becoming-less-religious/ indicates that only 16% self-identify as evangelical Protestant, versus 48% for various other Christian (mainline Protestant, historically black Protestant, Catholic, and other Christian – groups which “evangelical” is not normally used to describe).

Would that reflect Murray’s view of how “mainstream [white] Americans” live?

Probably true for many of Murray’s “mainstream [white] Americans” who hunt, fish, or farm (not that all do, or those activities are restricted to them).

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It’s not just going to a Waffle House. It’s when it’s “the” big deal destination, where you load 'em all up and git 'em all down there, Duggar style. I’d guess that, except for those of us who like the hole in the wall taqueria or some iffy bar for the music, most of us have another sort of place we think of for special events.

I’ve lived places where the gas station was the hang out and where you got your local chat. I’m surprised he didn’t ask about hunting licences, music, and Chik-fil-a. (In my personal bubble, I won’t go to the latter, no matter where.)

Where i live, my extended neighborhood, nearly everyone who wants to exercise or play basketball goes to the Y. It’s the microcosm of “diverse,” in nearly all ways. And that’s a bubble, too- the thinking that everywhere is like where we live, all sorts of people get along as we do.

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with all the laws changing in several states, the definiition of “hanging out with smokers” is going to have to be clarified – tobacco or non-tobacco products?

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Btw, if we over-intellectualize this, that is a marker of our own bubbles. Deeply, I’d say.

And the one defining question could have been, “How large is your local Walmart?” A friend from Arkansas says the thinking is, the larger the store, the more struggling the community.

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After thinking about it, the quiz definitely seems kind of stupid. A lot of bad questions.

I scored a low score because I don’t eat at certain food joints or watch tv shows. I don’t smoke, fish or know anything about nascar really. But that makes me live in a bubble? I see people fishing, hunting, smoking all the time. I just don’t do it.

I have nothing against chain food eateries, they’re usually just too crowded or I can find someplace closer to home that I like better.

I watch TV, just not network shows. I watch news, documentaries, travel, sports, etc so I think I am somewhat up to date on tv offerings.
I read a lot of newspapers and magazines to keep informed,

I socialize a decent amount. I snowboard and mountain bike with all sorts of people. I play golf with a variety of people.

I’m not holed up in my mansion in my robe sipping aged whiskey while the maids are cleaning and the gardeners take care of my estate.

It’s not like I’m being driven around in my limo asking people for Grey Poupon.

So I don’t understand why this quiz assumes that because I live in the burbs means I have no concept of what’s going on around me. It’s an incorrect assessment.

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“Have you ever purchased a pickup truck?” “Have you ever gone fishing?”

Lol, these questions appear as if they were written by the same “disconnected” “upper class” type of person to whom the article is referring… That is to say, they are bit cliche. :stuck_out_tongue:

Regardless, my score was 50.

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“And the one defining question could have been, “How large is your local Walmart?” A friend from Arkansas says the thinking is, the larger the store, the more struggling the community.”

Not true, at least in my area with very low unemployment but sizable Wal-Marts, but most people here shop at Wal-Mart, regardless of socio-economics. They are big, clean, and save you money.

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Not ordinary big, doschicos, like many K-Marts or Targets. I’m talking huuuge. But I’ll agree it’snot such a defining question, after all.

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Yes, the ones by me are very big. Supercenter Wal-Marts, one being brand new. I’d say they are 2-3 times the size of an ordinary Wal-Mart or a Target.

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On smokers, the smoking laws and the increasing social/legal unacceptability in smoking in many public places means it’s very possible I wouldn’t know if some friends…especially new ones I’m still in the process of knowing smoked or not.

I did grow up with a father who smoked from his early 20s until he suddenly decided to quit cold turkey sometime during my sophomore in high school. And he hasn’t picked up another cigarette since.

And smoking used to be much more common and across the SES spectrum. In fact, it used to be considered a mark of debonair sophistication in some well-off areas and private elite colleges a few decades ago.

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I never imagined it to be a scientific survey, and keep hoping someone will explain the basis for the questions. And exactly what he is trying to measure.

To me, it seemed the author tried to think of experiences in which the majority of Americans participate. However, the restaurants seemed pretty expensive and upscale to me; why not McDonalds? I wondered why fishing, not hunting? As some have pointed out, fishing may cut more broadly across economic class and isn’t limited to rural areas.

Do a majority of Americans follow NASCAR? Maybe I can google the answer.

The Branson question seemed a trick question to me. I knew both answers. What it means to me would depend entirely on who brought it up. It would need a bit of context. I used the answer I assumed would get me a higher score.

If the question had been using buses in town, rather than for a longer trip, my score would have been higher. Also, there was no train question I have taken lots and lots of trains in this country.

I wouldn’t have seen any of the movies, except they were available on international flights, and I took advantage of the opportunity. Was this the case with anyone else here?

I liked mathmom’s post about knowing exactly where our meat comes from. That is my experience as well. However, I have some elitist intellectual friends who are getting into butchering as part of their farm to table lifestyle. I don’t know how many people kill what they eat? Probably not a majority?

I thought Walmart or Amazon might have been an interesting question.

busdriver: I was interpreting a high score as “winning” not “losing”

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If I redo the survey using my adult life I score 10. I grew up in a working class blue collar area of Los Angeles. I marched in a parade as a Girl Scout and my neighbor sold Avon. My Mom and Step Dad went on a trip to Branson otherwise I don’t know anyone who has been there. I know several people in recovery who smoke otherwise everyone else I know doesn’t smoke and it is politically incorrect in my city to smoke tobacco, weed might be a different story.
We do own a pick up truck but even that is due to the fact that one of my kids is an equestrian and needs a truck to pull a horse trailer.
I would be shocked if a Walmart would ever be built anywhere near my town. We have been hoping for a Target for years.

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We don’t have a Walmart. People don’t want one because they’d just have to boycott it or something. We also don’t have a Target, but people do want one of those.

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@cobrat:
Without hijacking the thread, it is shocking to me in the course of my lifetime how atittudes (including mine) have changed towards smoking. When I was growing up, people smoked in places like the supermarket, the public library, and other public spaces and didn’t think twice about it. I remember going to a restaurant just before the smoking ban was in place, and seeing how many people were smoking (this was in the mid 90’s here in NJ), and then going to a local diner that was smoke free and how staggering the difference was. Something I would have considered acceptable 20+ years ago today would jar me to no end, it tells a lot in the change in attitudes. And when I have been places where smoking is still allowed in public places, it hits home to me how much it has changed.

With smoking, there tends to be three groups where it is still common. It is more common among blue collar (rural or otherwise), among college educated people, where smoking was quite common, it is now a small minority and is looked down upon by many. People in so called alternative communities (among LGBT people, among racial minorities) smoking rates tend to be higher, as it is among the ‘hipsters’ and such I see, also smoking tends to be higher in the tattoo and body piercing crowd IME (I guess it is seen as being 'rebellious" or something). Still,depending on where you live the smoking question takes the voluntary out of it, you can work with people and be friends with them and not know they smoke, pretty easily.