Lines

[JWC3]

Assuming you know what it means to 'cross the line'

Some people have big neon glow in the dark, Don't do this or don't talk about that lines.

Some people don't have lines at all, some people have land mines that you don't even know you've done anything wrong until you've been violently hurled across the room by an explosion.

How does socionics explain this?

[Fabelie]

Assuming you know what it means to 'cross the line'

Some people have big neon glow in the dark, Don't do this or don't talk about that lines.

When you see people with those big neon signs, you're the first one to see how far you can go over that line.

[JWC3]

How does socionics explain this?

Or rather, what's your type and how would you explain your own personal lines.

Personally I think I'm more akin to a land mine sorta person.

[Brilliand]

Or rather, what's your type and how would you explain your own personal lines.

Personally I think I'm more akin to a land mine sorta person.

I sometimes daydream about brutally murdering people who overstep my lines in ridiculously extreme ways (hmm, actually this reminds me of the recent discussion on the "LIIs and warnings" thread). Generally, though, I'd say that my lines are doors that I shut if you approach; I don't want to just warn people not to cross my lines, I want to make it impossible. I suppose that means that I have farther-out lines that result in me withdrawing if you cross them.

[silverchris9]

I have lines that run a very very very small radius around my person, crossing them makes the likelihood of my having any continued association with the person minimal to nonexistent. Maybe contact resumes after a long time, but it will stay superficial, and subtly negative unless I'm in a particularly good mood. I don't throw people across rooms. I long to. One of these days I will (metaphorically speaking), but at this point I feel like the only real capacity for revenge I have is a maniacal Iago-like campaign to destroy someone's psyche, and I don't think that even I would enjoy that. So yeah, I guess it's just like lines that are very close to me that result in dismissal if crossed. Combined, perhaps, with less important lines farther out that, when crossed, result in some degree of pushing away, but not permanent dismissal.

I don't know how obvious they are. Not very, I suppose.

[Rubicon]

I guess I have lines, but I don't think they're visible. I can't really see them at any rate. I find out where they are myself when I react when someone crosses one. :redface: Sometimes, the objective part of me just finds it interesting - someone crossing the line. Can't really blame them if they're not visible. Testing the boundaries is possibly preferable to playing it safe anyway.

[DirectorAbbie]

I think I have neon signs with land mines behind them.

[redbaron]

I'm always stepping over my own lines. that's all I know.

[JWC3]

I'm always stepping over my own lines. that's all I know.

How does that even work? You offend yourself?

[redbaron]

How does that even work? You offend yourself?

I change my mind. I'm referring to lines I draw for myself. As far as lines for other people go, I think they're changeable too. My lines are always moving I think, depending on the situation and the person and my own mood.

[Mattie]

I don't know if it's specifically type-related other than sharing value with IEs. So, an SeTi is most likely going to be observant of NiFe lines than an FiNe's lines, while a TeSi will have the opposite experience. If you can take cues but not ones, then you'll step on all of the mines. I personally feel like I generally have no lines at all, but there's a land mine that's filled with something relatively harmless, and a note that says "You've got some making up to do! Ice cream is a good first step."

[jewels]

It sounds like lines are just boundaries, which are something healthy people with self-esteem create. So this part wouldn't be type-related.

What I do see as being type-related, is that it's more awkward to draw a line in areas we're less confident in (those functions we're less comfortable using) and vice versa. So it'd be easy to draw lines in areas related to your ego block functions.

Functions I'm less confident in would be more awkward to draw a line in, despite needing the line even more, and I'd have to consciously think about it. Drawing a Ti line for me? hard. A se one? kinda awkward to say "don't touch my stuff!" etc.

I imagine the lines easiest to draw are in your ego block. Sorta like I can see an ISTp being comfortable saying "Nah I need to get some sleep so am going to bail early." (a line drawn to protect Si). Or an ENFp, "Thanks for the idea, but I really want to keep my options open now to think of something else," (protecting Ne), etc.

Or, random semi-related example..

The other day I was asking a bar owner about a private party, and trying to get across the idea that the bar was slow on weeknights, I would bring people in, and why should I have to pay them to do that? They should give me a discount. But I didn't say it that clearly and my ISTp bf was listening and came over and quickly explained to the guy that I'd be bringing business on a slow night, so there was no reason to charge me (he drew a Te line). He drew that line more effectively than I did. I thought I was being clearly but must not have been for the guy to not get it. But he was nice about it and blamed it on the bar guy being a little "slow." Point being, it was easier for him to draw a Te line than for me.

And at times, I've had to bluntly tell him how/why to draw a Fi line with people, such as girls hitting on him, or girls asking him to do boyfriend-ish things for them.

[silverchris9]

An Ni line is sort of like an Ne line, but it's not so much about options as to what someone will do, it's more about holding to what you think. Like someone says: "look at it this way," and I say, no, I will be looking at it in the way that I want, thank you very much. Lenore Thompson already says this though, and she's MBTI. She's like the freaking book of Isaiah, let me tell you... (or maybe the more apt analogy is the Neo-Platonist thinkers? Except the Judaism-Christianity metaphor for MBTI-socionics is more apt---and funnier, because of the great incommensurate-ness---than the paganism-Christianity metaphor, since MBTI and socionics both came from the same basic source, and socionics is just a better explication of similar material.)