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An observation regarding N-types and their apparent abundance on the 1ntarw3bz.

Bear Warp

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epyT
I've been into MBTI for a couple months now, and have spent plenty of time lurking on and contributing to forums, reading blogs, and watching YouTube videos made by people of various types. During this time I've noticed something: there are a lot more N-types represented (or people who claim to be N-types) than there are S-types. Also, there seems to be more INxx types than there are ENxx types, but the reason for this is pretty obvious, in my opinion.

I did a quick search on YouTube and and could find only three videos made by or depicting non-xNxx types; one ISTJ, one ISTP, and one ESFP. There are plenty of INxx and a couple ENxx videos, though.

A look at MBTI Central's main page shows this:

The NF Idyllic: 337 threads and 21,190 posts
The NT Rationale: 328 threads and 28,238 posts
The SP Arthouse: 80 threads and 2,627 posts
The SJ Guardhouse: 64 threads and 2,645 posts

I checked out a poll-thread on this forum asking for peoples' types. Granted, not every forum member participated in this, but it still shows some interesting percentages:

ENxx: 17.2% of voters
INxx: 63.2% of voters
ESxx: 2.77% of voters
ISxx: 7.63% of voters
The rest of the votes were cast by borderline, unsure, or uh, type-changing people.

So what do I gather from this? That S-types don't care about basically useless activities such as posting on forums? That N-types are more interested in talking about whatever on the internet? That they are more likely to spend time on forums? I can understand this. I'm more comfortable talking with people online than I am in real life (usually). I can be more articulate in conversation, and post videos of flying penises attacking chess masters. Plus, there many internet sites devoted to many interesting things that are fun to discuss. Is this an "N" thing to do?

Or is it that people like to think themselves as N-types? xNxx descriptions sure sound nice. You get to be a genius, or have premonitions, or be rare, or unique, or any number of things many people can't claim. Right? I'm not a genius. Smart? Sure! But not a genius. It's like when people talk about their IQs or SAT scores online. It's very easy to claim these things.

Hmm...I am a very suspicious person. I'm suspicious of myself at times. Always questioning, and analyzing, and refining. "Checking facts and comparing notes".

But the numbers I found are interesting (to me at least).

So, basically, has anyone else noticed this abundance of N-types?
 

cafe

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Heh. Yes. We INs don't tend to have real lives. :D
 

Bear Warp

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That definitely accounts for bunch of the INs. But, I think a percentage of the INTxs on the internet are full of it. The "claimers" I bring up in my original post LOVE to talk about their inherent genius, as if being an NT automatically makes you one. They like the descriptions and follow the letters rather than learn about cognitive processes, which just isn't helpful at all. The cog-pros are much more interesting and helpful than the letters.

In retrospect, it's mainly the apparent INTs that I'm suspicious of. I'm sure that most of the INTs on the internet are genuine, but, there are definitely some that have no idea what they are talking about.
 
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Haphazard

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So you claim Forer Effect?

I would say that there's probably an overabundance of N-types interested in MBTI as compared to S-types (as demonstrated on this forum) but by now, everyone uses the internet. Ns are probably the ones more poking around the forums and searching through random topics of research on Google and Wikipedia, though, while Ss mostly come to find advice, things to buy, and games. Oh, lots and lots of games...

So, if you look on this site, yes, I'd say most of us actually are N-types, but if you look on youtube, music forums, yahoogroups, etc., most would be Ss.
 

cafe

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That definitely accounts for bunch of the INs. But, I think a percentage of the INTxs on the internet are full of it. The "claimers" I bring up in my original post LOVE to talk about their inherent genius, as if being an NT automatically makes you one. I even read a post somewhere in which some kid was talking about how cool and advantageous it is to have "no emotions". What? Damn noobs! It's about as maddening as people diagnosing themselves with a mental illness because it seems cool to them.

In retrospect, it's mainly the apparent INTs that I'm suspicious of. I'm sure that most of the INTs on the internet are genuine, but, there are definitely some that have no idea what they are talking about.
Hmm. I guess I'm too old to have picked up the dynamic. If you notice a high number of INTs on this forum in particular, though, I think the fact that this is a spin-off of an INTP forum probably has more than a little something to do with that.
 

Bear Warp

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All good reasons, folks. It's all summed up for me.

And cafe: these...cases I speak of a pretty few and far between. Just run-of-the-mill internet pseudo-intellectuals that have discovered MBTI. Nothing really worth talking about.
 

6sticks

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There isn't an overabundance of N's on the internet, there's an overabundance of N's interested in discussing the MBTI.
 

Haphazard

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All good reasons, folks. It's all summed up for me.

And cafe: these...cases I speak of a pretty few and far between. Just run-of-the-mill internet pseudo-intellectuals that have discovered MBTI. Nothing really worth talking about.

Hmm.

Did you come from INTJ-fourms?
 

Haphazard

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Yeah. Place got stale for me.

Ah, me too. I can see how somebody who stayed there for a while would get sick of people calling themselves INTxs. Well, I did, anyway.

This place is better, albeit much, much slower.
 

Wolf

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There isn't an overabundance of N's on the internet, there's an overabundance of N's interested in discussing the MBTI.
Nope. On internet forums with a random sampling of people interested in some random subject I have seen, repeatedly, that the vast majority are INXX types when a thread about testing came up.

Granted I am a biased source since I frequent fora that appeal to me, and I'm very strong on INT. Therefore, another INXX would probably be just as interested in it as I am.

This is way too basic to really go with just this, but there it is.


You also get the odd ENFP, most of whom mysteriously like introvert activities, or at least the ones you find on the internet do.
 

autumn

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You also get the odd ENFP, most of whom mysteriously like introvert activities, or at least the ones you find on the internet do.

:hi:

And yes, I think it's probably true that Ns tend generally to be more interested in things like MBTI. And introverts, at least according to popular opinion, seem to generally like message boards like this one.

autumn
 

6sticks

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Nope. On internet forums with a random sampling of people interested in some random subject I have seen, repeatedly, that the vast majority are INXX types when a thread about testing came up.

Granted I am a biased source since I frequent fora that appeal to me, and I'm very strong on INT. Therefore, another INXX would probably be just as interested in it as I am.

This is way too basic to really go with just this, but there it is.


You also get the odd ENFP, most of whom mysteriously like introvert activities, or at least the ones you find on the internet do.
Just to clarify, I meant using the internet in general and not just posting on forums. I don't doubt that there would be a prevalence of INXX's on most forums, though there would be significant exceptions.

In other words, basically what Happy said. Though I look at random topics on wikipedia all the time.
 

Wolf

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Just to clarify, I meant using the internet in general and not just posting on forums. I don't doubt that there would be a prevalence of INXX's on most forums, though there would be significant exceptions.

In other words, basically what Happy said. Though I look at random topics on wikipedia all the time.
It may be an effect of who works on the internet, too. INTXs often write software.

The percentage should be pretty similar to general population percentages across North America, Europe, and Australia (at least the English-speaking portion of the internet), though there will be a lot more introverts represented in samples due to spending more time using it. Most of the Sensors are on the large social networking sites, e-commerce sites, wallpaper sites, etc, that do not interest us as much.
 

MetalWounds

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Sites like Myspace and Facebook tend to throw off the curve. Now that internet access is so abundant, the user ratio is probably much closer to national averages, as Wolf estimates.

Pre-Myspace you would probably find that the user demographic was mostly NTs.
 

Wolf

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Sites like Myspace and Facebook tend to throw off the curve. Now that internet access is so abundant, the user ratio is probably much closer to national averages, as Wolf estimates.

Pre-Myspace you would probably find that the user demographic was mostly NTs.
Agreed. Particularly among contributors, though I think this is still true to some extent (useful contributions, at least).
 

dnivera

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SJ here on the intarwebs

I lurk a lot but don't post often. I guess it's because I think most contributions are silly and a waste of time, such as birthday posts or a post about what kind of shoes I have or why people don't like a certain kind of music. I only post when I have a strong opinion about something, generally, or am wasting time (like I am right now). I'd rather not add to a thread than make a 1-sentence comment.
 

Randomnity

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I'm a lot busier with real-life things now that summer's here, so maybe it's the same for the others - I haven't seen many of the S's around here for a while, actually.

I have also found that along with my declining time here, the topics discussed are losing interest for me, which could be for any number of reasons, most of which are probably unique to me, so please don't take it personally. As a result I've been spending most of my free time doing offline activities that interest me more, mostly social stuff and yard work.

I'll probably post more when I get bored in real life or the topics start interesting me again (or both). I did enjoy the forum for a long time, and wasted spent a lot of time here.
 

Alesia

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Sites like Myspace and Facebook tend to throw off the curve. Now that internet access is so abundant, the user ratio is probably much closer to national averages, as Wolf estimates.

Pre-Myspace you would probably find that the user demographic was mostly NTs.

Yeah, I think this is true. IRL I also find that my S friends could care less about MBTI. They simply would rather talk about other things. I also belong to several Phylosopy type groups and a Poet group. They are all N's.

Also note, how there are very few (if any) S MBTI forums like this one. There is an ENTP forum, an active INFP forum, of course the all encomposing INTP Central. But S's, in general just aren't interested in MBTI. Maybe because it's very abstract.
 

Haphazard

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That definitely accounts for bunch of the INs. But, I think a percentage of the INTxs on the internet are full of it. The "claimers" I bring up in my original post LOVE to talk about their inherent genius, as if being an NT automatically makes you one. I even read a post somewhere in which some kid was talking about how cool and advantageous it is to have "no emotions". What? Damn noobs! It's about as maddening as people diagnosing themselves with a mental illness because it seems cool to them.

In retrospect, it's mainly the apparent INTs that I'm suspicious of. I'm sure that most of the INTs on the internet are genuine, but, there are definitely some that have no idea what they are talking about.

I don't like INTs claiming they have no emotions -- first of all, it's not advantageous at all, and second of all, it's just plain not true. NTs in general tend to use their heads when making final decisions (as opposed to the heart, tradition, or whims), and while that may end up with good outcomes, chance or flaws in decision-making can turn the outcomes bad. NTs definitely have emotions but they tend to ignore them in favor of what they perceive to be 'logical' -- if they get along, great, if they don't, well, that's just too bad for the NTs feelings. Too much ignoring can strand an NT up a river without a paddle, leading to such awful things like psychosomatic illnesses and states that they don't know how to get themselves out of because they have such little experience there.

And usually, INTJs (the real ones, at least) tend to feel a lot more emotional and idealistic than what generally shows. Some of them even like to fancy themselves friendly and are quite surprised when this is not how they're perceived by others. Dunno about INTPs, though.
 
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