I came across yet another app about moods and personality. Being a sucker for personality quizzes, despite having a really good idea of what my traits are, I rarely pass one without taking it up and laughing at it.
This app touted to be a “depression, anxiety and burnout” test. The app was well-designed with soothing colours and pretty light.
Except, once I entered the site, it asked me to identify what I was feeling. Was I feeling angry, depressed, upset, sad, happy, relaxed blah blah?
Since childhood, we have been taught to identify and verbalise some feelings and emotions. Happy. Sad. Angry. Basics. We grow a little older and our vocabulary expands to include a few more words – frustrated, annoyed, elated. Simple, basic emotions that can be expressed in single words.
Social media, especially Facebook, helped us train better to identify what we are feeling and break down into simple sentences. “Mark is…
Feeling sad (with emoticon)
Going to eat an ice-cream
Feeling happy (with another emoticon)”
We had to frame our feelings into simple statements, and thereby identify the main emotion we are feeling.
However, is it possible that a person feels only one thing at one time? Giddy happiness could be accompanied by trepidation. Absolute misery could be coupled with relief. Anger, frustration and misery are often bundled together.
Yet, we are taught to give priority to only one emotion at at time. Nobody wants to know that you are a bundle of emotion.
So you choose a single emotion on the app. And thereby it leads you to further questions, and simply by the power of suggestion, you become.