Internet quizzes

I just took another of those infamous political polls. I guess that the purpose of these time-killers is to allow the average Joe to figure out where they stand politically, but I really wonder whether there is there a reason why people are not able to figure this out without the aid of an internet form?

One issue that stikes me is that these surveys never have the really interesting questions. I would prefer something far more "edgy". For example:

a) Scotch or bourbon?
b) If you only had one computer, would it be a laptop or a desktop?
c) You are stranded on a desert island with only one video to watch: Michael Moore or Rush Limbaugh?
d) You are abducted by aliens. Do you ask for answers regarding who killed J.F.K. or the infamous probe?

Speaking of alien probes, I just took the "geek test" at innergeek. Talk about slanted questions. Needless to say, I scored in the "Super geek" range (despite never having bitten the head off a chicken) with a (rounded) 49%.

Really, I wonder about our need to conform to some group, some pre-conceived notion of who we "are" in the chest-pounding, visceral sense of self-assuredness. Yet, it seems that there is no assurance; that we should hope that our personas are as dynamic as the we hope to be, adapting to the present need yet always ourselves. However, I suspect that most of the participants in your average internet survey are people just playing their hand, seeing if they are perceived in the same terms applied by the self. That is, most people really don't care what the form says, they are simply applying a sort of Turing test to the 'net in an attempt to see if the "machine" is as smart as he or she is, without any serious intent.

You wonder whether this need to conform has always been evidenced in mechanisms such as surveys. Would Sven the Viking been more self assured had he taken the Metrosexual quiz? Perhaps Casanova should have taken a quiz on sexual addiction.

So are these quizzes merely entertainment, or is there a greater social value? Are we, as a society, cautiously broaching those difficult questions about ourselves, our ethics, norms, and morés? Or are they really just a bunch of pop culture artifacts posing as lightweight sociology and psychology? After all, there are no control groups, no discussion of method, and only the simplest of statistics: a ranking on a range, as if you were attempting to ring the bell with a sledgehammer at the carnival. Maybe there is some quiz I can take in order to find out these answers.