Hello, everyone. It's MD. And yes, I'd like to talk about self-typings. I know many of you consider me to be a type-switcher, which actually makes me the best person to talk about this topic. As frustrating as it can be to see someone change types constantly, I'm more amazed at how easily someone will change their logic/understanding of socionics to reconcile a person's self-typing.
I would like to dispel the myth that, if you act like your true self, in the long run, your true type will come out. This is not true. Ananke and several others told me this roughly 8 months ago, and I used to believe this strongly, almost made a forum thread devoted to this idea, but I now believe this to be false. Over the past year, I have acted as best as I could just being myself, under a myriad of different self-typings, only to see people's opinions of my type constantly change.
Right now: over 90% of people think I'm either ESFj or ESTj. Why? Because those were my last 2 self-typings. Because I confidently spoke and believed in them, truly did, which swayed the logic/understanding of other people. Sure, not everyone likes considering themselves gullible. Sure, there were people who were extremely skeptical at first, said they could not see it at all, ever. But guess what? People change their minds.
What happened when I self-typed ESTp for so long? I had over 70% of the forum believing I was ESTp, I believe at one point even hitting 80%. What happened to that?
What about a year ago? Do you guys even remember, when over 75% of people thought I was Alpha NT, ENTp?
Does anyone remember when people thought I was ENFp? Or is that just too long ago.
My point is, I think, to the left of every post, the "Sociotype: XXXx" really has MUCH more power than I think people give it credit.
To be honest, I feel, if I changed my self-typing to something in Gamma, I'm sure I could have you all believing it in 3-6 months. Seriously. It's nothing bad against you, I don't think anyone is any less intelligent, but I think unfortunately, it's human nature, to go along with the confidence of another man. Persistence beats resistance.
I think I know what my type is now. But it doesn't matter. What matters is perception. People's perception is their reality. Where people perceive confidence, they abandon their own thoughts, own ideas, own confidence. I think, as humans, we need to make sure to have enough confidence to truly stick with what WE think, in the long run.
There are a few people who still believe I'm this type, or that. Like I said, the 10% who don't think I'm ESFj or ESTj, but the 10% who have enough courage to stick with their own ideas. I applaud you. To everyone else, I appreciate your open-mindedness, truly thank you for welcoming me in your quadras, but am just pointing out what has happened over the past year, so you can be aware of it in the future.
Be stronger in your own understanding. Don't be swayed by other people. Have a great day!