Beware of Labeling and Return to a Diverse Self

An analysis of the MBTI personality test and the importance of avoiding labeling. Discusses its impact on college students and the need for self-reflection.

Title: Beware of Labeling and Return to a Diverse Self

In recent years, the 'MBTI personality test' has repeatedly made it to the top of Weibo's hot search list. Since 2022, this test has gained significant attention. Originally widely used in the field of job recruitment, it has now become a popular social topic. Even the MBTI types of some celebrities have drawn high levels of interest from netizens.

In fact, the MBTI personality theory is not a new phenomenon. As early as in the last century, many psychologists had been researching it. As a personality type theory model, MBTI not only helps the public understand themselves better through assessment but also creates topics for social interaction. However, with the rapid development of the internet, people often tend to passively accept information. In this case, when people take the MBTI test for the first time and see the description of their corresponding personality type, they experience a considerable psychological impact. They match their own behaviors in life with the descriptions and can't help but exclaim at the accuracy of the test.

Objectively speaking, the MBTI test can indeed help people understand others to a certain extent. Especially in today's era where the internet of things has further shortened the distance between people, it serves as a social tool. But in life, the test results of MBTI inevitably label people. The tool that was originally used to help people understand themselves can instead limit people's cognition in reverse. The entertainment-oriented thinking and the herd mentality of the masses have made MBTI increasingly popular. After MBTI became popular, the media further drove its development towards pan-entertainment, and the voices of discussion grew even stronger. This also has an impact on people's thinking and further deepens the 'stereotypical impression' of 'labels'. In the end of this mass pan-entertainment trend, the academic psychological test is simplified and de-scientized.

However, simply classifying people with simple labels and making judgments based on stereotypical labels is relatively one-sided. If young people, especially college students, completely rely on MBTI to understand themselves and engage in social interaction, it implies a lack of clarity in their self-positioning and reflects a kind of 'self-escape'. If people completely stereotype MBTI and label others with stereotypes, then the diversity of human personality will be restricted. The so-called 'social tool' will have a negative impact on interpersonal communication.

So, how should college students approach such tests with the right attitude? People are naturally different from each other, and human personality is not long-term stable. On the contrary, personality often changes due to internal or external factors. Instead of giving themselves various 'labels' through tests, college students should stand in front of the mirror more often and examine themselves.

The original intention of the MBTI personality test is to help people understand themselves better and then make reasonable use of their own advantages for development. To a certain extent, it can point people in a suitable development direction. But in the end, people don't have to纠结 whether they are a certain personality type and should not be limited by it. Even if personality will affect a person's talent and the path they will take, whether they can continue on that path still depends on an individual's willpower.

In general, the MBTI personality test is not suitable for the pan-entertainment network environment and still has a long way to go in future research. However, compared to personality tests, I believe that college students should be more vigilant against the proliferation of 'labeling'. From horoscopes in the early days to MBTI today, they all more or less label people. 'Labeling' will inevitably lead to cognitive biases. Just as there are no two identical leaves in the world, everyone's personality is a unique existence. As the main force of the internet in the new century, young people should adhere to their own inner judgments, gradually improve their mentalities through self-learning, understand and respect themselves, and turn the network 'turbulent flow' into a 'clear stream'.