So now there are seven types of people

I always get worried when attempts are made to categorise people.  Nearly all human woes start with determining that one group of people is somehow different from another.  Also, I’ve always had a suspicion of personality type tests in that they try to take a very complex animal and pigeon hole us into a very small range of categories.  No doubt someone will say, ah yes this is typical of anyone who is category ABCZ.  To me the tests are like horoscopes in that everyone can recognise themselves in the words somehow. 

And so it was with some curling of my lip that I heard there is a new British Class Calculator that has been developed (it has been all over the news), which states that there are no longer three classes in this country, upper, middle and lower, but rather seven.  Of course, despite my own protestations, I couldn’t help having a look and taking part in the test and falling into the trap of deciding which kind of person, or rather class I would like to be long before I had finished. 

The questions were easy enough but at times they seemed subjective.  How much money I earned was straight forward but the ‘Which of these people do you know socially?’ threw me because to be honest I rarely socialise and there wasn’t a box to tick marked none of the above.  The final group of questions was around cultural activities and encouraged some creativity.  If I wanted to portray myself as somewhat superior then clearly I could tick ‘listens to classical music’ and ‘goes to ballet’ whereas if I had wanted to be a little less oblong then ‘listens to hip hop/rap’ and ‘go to gigs’ would have been more appropriate.

Anyway, I’ve completed the test and the results are in and apparently I am in the Technical Middle Class, a small, distinctive and prosperous new class group.  Fantastic, just what I would have wanted (if I had had a choice).  At 6% of the population we are as rare as the Elite group and so clearly in a place to be.

But wait on:

• People in this group tend to mix socially with people similar to themselves – but I don’t.
• They prefer emerging culture, such as using social media, to highbrow culture such as listening to classical music – but I do both.
• Many people in this group work in research, science and technical occupations – got this one right.
• They tend to live in suburban locations, often in the south east of England – but this one wrong.
• They come from largely middle class backgrounds – and this one wrong as well.

So in spite of four of the five assumptions being incorrect the Technical Middle Class is my best fit and that is my very point.  Any categorisation is flawed, questions will have to be tweaked, responses interpreted and corners cut to make the jigsaw pieces fit.  But still I have enjoyed filling in the calculator as I feel vindicated and I am comfortable in the knowledge that I can still distrust such classification.