It’s not uncommon for dating app websites to have reviews and love stories from happy clients. What is unusual is for anyone to say that they want to thank the app, because without it they would, quote, “die of loneliness”. What a way to introduce potential new users. But let’s scroll up, read the headline and try not to think of our lonely ghosts.
“Ur My Type” is a new dating app, designed to match people based on their Myers-Briggs test result. Users start by taking the exam, and then get to choose which personality types they’d like to meet. So far, not the worst idea I’ve come across. If one is outgoing, one might enjoy the presence of a partner who is extroverted and outdoorsy.
Explanation.
For the uninitiated, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) sorts people into four different categories. Now, people love to divide themselves into different groups, usually based on gender, religion, Hogwarts house, language, music taste or just about anything else, really. I only trust the prophet Britney Spears, who said that “there’s only two types of people in the world: ones that entertain, and the ones that observe”.
Nevertheless, followers of MBTI can become very proud of their category and use it to explain and inform lots of areas of their life – and now, with Ur My Type, it can determine their romantic future. It’s worth noting that MBTI has been described as a “pseudoscience” and that much of the literature that supports MTBI comes from a journal owned by the Myers-Briggs Foundation… which makes me think that it might be unreliable, or biased. Incidentally, if you’d like to categorise yourself in a more scientifically reliable way, try the Big Five personality traits.
Unexpected consequences.
Ur My Type users will, presumably, have at least one thing in common: they’ll believe in their MBTI results. I can’t tell you if that trait is associated with INFPs or WTAFs, but it does suggest a certain exposure to pop psychology and similar levels of education within the user base. So, if people use dating sites to find people like themselves, then perhaps Ur My Type is actually perfect, even if it doesn’t work in the way it was supposed to.
Ur My Type online presence.
Ur My Type is a fairly new dating site. Established in 2020, it now boasts 300k downloads and over half a million matches. This is pretty impressive, until you see the PlayStore reviews, where users claim that there’s nobody on the app. As with a lot of social media and dating apps, starting up is really hard and attracting new users is a real problem if they don’t expect to find anyone to connect with. It’s difficult to find out more information about the company, because both their website and LinkedIn are pretty sparse and the site doesn’t have a Wikipedia page.
Their Instagram account is popular, with more than 50k followers, but it hasn’t been updated since early February and the only things that are on there are jokes about different personality types and creepy cartoons with text, diagrams and things that probably only make sense if you’re a real Myers-Briggs enthusiast. There isn’t anything that explains how the app works or convinces anyone with a passing interest to join. The only result I got from YouTube was a badly edited video from a man with atrocious screen presence who attempted to explain, with no real skill, what personality type dating was. Although highly amusing, I couldn’t gather any useful information.
Conclusion.
I’m not a fan of personality quizzes and categories. I don’t believe that my star sign has anything to do with who I am as a person – I like to think that I’ve been shaped by my choices and experiences and that I have some degree of control over who I am. I also think that the human experience is far too complex to be summarised in a dating app quiz. For example, am I an outdoorsy person? Sometimes.
It depends on the time of year, the activity in mind, who I’m being compared to, my mood and how tired I am at that particular moment. None of that can accurately be captured in a personality quiz. I think that people are multifaceted and don’t fit neatly into boxes, and the whole idea of the Myers-Briggs test is a little daft. Clearly, Ur My Type seems to have had a pretty solid start, with their 300k downloads in less than two years, but I’m not convinced that four initials are enough to find you a life partner.
Rachel Hall, M.A., completed her education in English at the University of Pennsylvania and received her master’s degree in family therapy from Northern Washington University. She has been actively involved in the treatment of anxiety disorders, depression, OCD, and coping with life changes and traumatic events for both families and individual clients for over a decade. Her areas of expertise include narrative therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, and therapy for traumatic cases. In addition, Rachel conducts workshops focusing on the psychology of positive thinking and coping skills for both parents and teens. She has also authored numerous articles on the topics of mental health, stress, family dynamics and parenting.
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