You Tell Us: Do You Live in a Bubble?

MAKING SENSE -- July 24, 2012 at 12:53 PM EDT

You Tell Us: Do You Live in a Bubble?

Bubbles Creative Commons photo by Marceltheshell via Wikimedia Commons.

The "Do You Live in a Bubble?" quiz, concocted by Charles Murray and first published here on Making Sen$e back in March, has generated more than 200,000 views thus far, and is still going strong. Our sole regret: that we never asked readers for their scores.

To rectify matters, we're relinking to the quiz Tuesday with one small request: Please, please send us your final score. We don't need your name or any personal information. All you need do is fill in the blank at the bottom of the page with your score. Below, the real-time results for all to see. I'm intensely curious to see how bubbled you are as a group, and I imagine you may be as well.

To begin the bidding, I repeat my score: a feeble 31 (though I did watch Fiona Apple videos on YouTube the other day). Charles Murray, by contrast, posted a 48.

And you?

Note: quiz data may take a moment to populate as it's being updated in real time.

Click here to take the quiz.

See below for scores Charles Murray would expect, based on a few broad demographic generalizations. Note that there is a range of scores for each category and some overlap among them.

The higher your score, the thinner your bubble. The lower, the more insulated you might be from mainstream American culture.

48-99: A lifelong resident of a working-class neighborhood with average television and movie going habits. Typical: 77.

42-100: A first-generation middle-class person with working-class parents and average television and movie going habits. Typical: 66.

11-80: A first-generation upper-middle-class person with middle-class parents. Typical: 33.

0-43: A second-generation (or more) upper-middle-class person who has made a point of getting out a lot. Typical: 9.

0-20: A second-generation (or more) upper-middle-class person with the television and movie going habits of the upper middle class. Typical: 2.

This entry is cross-posted on the Making Sen$e page, where correspondent Paul Solman answers your economic and business questions.

Follow @paulsolman

The PBS NewsHour welcomes your original comments. We reserve the right to remove posts that do not follow these basic guidelines: comments must be relevant to the topic of the post; may not include profanity, personal attacks or hate speech; may not promote a business or raise money; may not be spam. Anything you post should be your own work. The PBS NewsHour reserves the right to read on the air and/or publish on its website or in any medium now known or unknown the comments or emails that we receive. By submitting comments, you agree to the PBS Terms of Use and Privacy Policy, which include more details.