INFP Introverts: The 64-Color Box

I have been topping up my self-esteem and my social status by buying the right branded things, so that I feel good about myself, so that people can know who I am. In my world, the implications of wearing a crocodile as opposed to a polo player on the breast of one’s shirt are of crucial importance. Understanding the differences between Dualit and Dyson, and what they say about their owners is reflection of style and good taste.

By now you’re thinking that I am a particularly shallow individual and, to a certain extent, you’d be right. But I think that in small ways, we all behave like this in our daily lives. A stranger waves as they drive past in the same model car as our own. Snap judgments are made on youths dressed in white Reeboks and hoodies. That little bit extra spent on our favourite name brands in the supermarket is a small price to pay because we’re worth it.

Being the gullible fool that I am, I believed in the promises that these brands made to me; that I would be more attractive, more successful, more happy for buying their stuff. However, the highs of consumerism have been accompanied by a continual, dull ache, growing slowly as the years have gone by; a melancholy that until recently I could not understand.

I now realise that…

Continue reading “Bonfire of the Brands”

Look Homely, Angel

ABC’s ‘Ugly Betty’ Is Plainly Lovable
By Tom Shales, Washington Post

“Ugly Betty” isn’t just entertainment, it’s therapy. Nirvana therapy. It’s happiness in a tube, or rather The Tube. It’s a pint of Ben & Jerry’s with no fat or calories. It’s tuning in to “The View” to discover they all have laryngitis. It’s Florida without those disgusting bugs.

Mostly, it’s getting even with anyone who ever rejected your proposal of lunch, dinner, a movie or marriage because they thought you weren’t good enough.

The heroine of “Ugly Betty,” as the title does considerably more than imply, is not by traditional or contemporary standards a raving beauty. But she’s a beautiful person just the same and you might be raving once you meet her.

Continue reading…

Channel Zero
Television? Not on Their Watch.
By Korin Miller, Washington Post

Nell Triplett’s Woodley Park living room is filled with the usual suspects: couch, coffee table, bookshelf and cozy fireplace. But there’s one notable absence. “I’ve never had a television,” she says. No TV? Anywhere in the apartment? Doesn’t she know the latest about Kate and Sawyer’s “Lost” romance, or Meredith and McDreamy on “Grey’s Anatomy”? Nope. She doesn’t watch either one. The latest straining hopeful to be booted off “American Idol”? No clue.

Instead, she takes yoga, salsa dancing and French classes in the evenings. She plays the violin, reads a lot and trains for a marathon. Triplett, 25, says people give her a funny look when they learn of her TV-free life: “They always ask me how I live without it…but I’ve never even considered owning one.”

For many of us, television plays a big role in the way we live. At home, living rooms gave way to family rooms that gave way to media rooms. Reading chairs begat easy chairs that begat recliners, now with remote control and beer cooler built in. And then there’s the endless programming, from ESPN to HBO to MTV, presented on flat screens, projector screens, HDTV with surround sound. Why would—how could—anyone do without?

Not many people do. According to a Census Bureau study, 98.2 percent of U.S. households in 2004 had televisions, averaging 2.8 sets per home. But there is a minuscule group of Americans who just say no to television.

Their reasons vary: Some, like Triplett, never had a TV growing up. Some think the shows are not worth their time. Others simply find television too distracting. Whatever the rationale, life without TV is a rarity.

“To aggressively not have a TV is to take yourself out of the loop of American cultural conversation,” says Robert J. Thompson, director of the Center for the Study of Popular Television at Syracuse University. He says people are often shocked, then reverential upon learning of someone’s TV-free lifestyle.

Continue reading “Channel Zero”

“Once upon a time, people kept secrets. Today’s tell-all bloggers and MySpace denizens have made the notion of a guarded personal life feel obsolete. What effect does such exposure have on the psyche? For every citizen who employs freedom of speech to the hilt, there’s someone equally determined to keep a few gems—or at least trysts—to herself.”

Internet Friends

The Decline and Fall of the Private Self