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Are You Guys Open About Your Interests? Or Do You Hide Them?

My main special interest is mechanical devices and that certainly isn't hidden since that is how I make my living. It is well known enough to cause a affliction called "friendly neighbor mechanic syndrome". As far as my other special interests go, I don't try to hide them, but they are almost totally unknown to others. I just don't talk about them much because I don't talk much.
 
It varies in time and especially the group I am part of. Sometimes I hid things in the closet literally. If I was very comfortable with the people and had seen their way of dealing with other of my eccentricities then I might talk about it.

I used to really like crayons. But not for coloring so much. We used to make these rubberband guns and use the crayons as bullets. Those inner cardboard boxes in the big sets could be pulled out and look like ammo clips. :oops::D
 
I'm one of the lucky ones who's managed to turn one of mine into a main source income..so I get to talk about it all the time :)
 
I'm completely open about my BIG interests. I am currently totally obsessed with Ben from the movie "Le Temps Du Loup" (Time Of The Wolf). I have three full size cinema posters (English, French & German) for the movie on my bedroom walls, so the rest of my family can't have failed to notice. I've watched the movie on DVD several times recently, to protests of "Not again." I have a changing slideshow of images from the movie as a desktop background on my PC and I've just designed and ordered a T-shirt. So you could say that I don't make any attempt to hide my interests. My user name BIMOG is an acronym.

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I have learned to hide them since it was always the main reason I didn't have friends when I was in school. Not that I actually want to have friends now at all, but at least people don't look at me weird this way. It's difficult, like having to bite your tongue to not say anything and instead I become very quiet, which is probably just as awkward but you know! :rolleyes:
 
I think I have been open with some of them that other people thought were just a "hobby". I had an obession with makeup when I was 19-20 and kept hoarding it, talking about it and most people thought this was just "being a girl". It didn't strike anyone as odd, at worst they thought it was the result of vanity.

I have other obsessions I hide. Like my obession with linguistics because of what is behind that. I don't like the way "I speak" and am ashamed that My dialect was the result of coming from a lower class background and have only developed this interest in an effort to remove certain from my speech.
 
Hurting89 said:
I have other obsessions I hide. Like my obession with linguistics because of what is behind that. I don't like the way "I speak" and am ashamed that My dialect was the result of coming from a lower class background and have only developed this interest in an effort to remove certain from my speech.
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The way I speak is often a hindrance in my life because most NT's seem to think the way I speak is a manifestation of a latent superiority complex, when in fact I have a REALLY difficult time "toning it down" or incorporating slang into my vocabulary.
 
CultOfLoonLoon said:
The way I speak is often a hindrance in my life because most NT's seem to think the way I speak is a manifestation of a latent superiority complex, when in fact I have a REALLY difficult time "toning it down" or incorporating slang into my vocabulary.
Click to expand...

Approaching slang as a foreign language might be an approach,
if approaching it is at all desired.
 
tree said:
Approaching slang as a foreign language might be an approach,
if approaching it is at all desired.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your suggestion, and you're absolutely correct about the way it is similar to a foreign language. As a matter of fact, when I say slang words, I often get glared like those parents you'd see in cheesy 90's sitcoms when a parent tries to fit in with the much younger generation by using "tired" out of date slang.

Basically you can hear the quotation marks when I try and use slang. It's bad.
 
tree said:
It may be a good thing that you don't bother with it.
Click to expand...
It boils down to the fact that it doesn't sound natural coming out of my mouth at all. I try to blend in with the language culture of those in my vicinity, but most times it ends up alienating me.

And to answer the main question of the thread:
I'm very open about the things I am obsessing over at any given time, which varies widely and changes seemingly monthly. But the majority of those I try and converse with become reviled, execrative and malicious when I speak (stuttered/slurred) opinions.
 
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Yeah, I guess I'm fairly open but my main interests are sports, politics, current events

most people don't want to take to me about any of those
 
I am very open about my interests mostly because I have to be. My interest involves ASL and cultures.
 
I am usually guarded about my interests in real life due to knowing that if I start talking about it i will keep going on about it,I learnt it the hard way during a date many years ago and finding out that the guy thought I was boring and wouldn't shut up about comics and movies,but now I won't talk about them to anyone unless they bring it up and ask me questions I love to collect dolls but won't show anyone unless they ask,it's hard sometimes because I do go on and on to my husband about either dolls,makeup or comics since he will listen but he sometimes has to tell me to stop.
 
I'd talk to people about them if they brought them up, but I rarely broadcast the things I'm interested in unless I'm online, because I don't feel I need to. A few band T shirts, a few things on my facebook wall, but that's about it. I found out very early on that being too enthusiastic about your interests can lead to social rejection.

So in other words, I don't hide things, but I don't actively advertise my interests to others either.
 
It depends on who I'm around. If I know the person and they're share the same interest (computer games) then I'll be very open and talk about it until I'm blue in the face. Otherwise I probably won't, I feel a little embarrassed about it and chances are they won't enjoy it anywhere near to the same level so what's the point. Somehow not having anything to say is more appropriate.
 
I'm open about my interests on Aspergers/autism forums and among my closest loved ones, because those are the people who "get it". I don't like to tell casual acquaintances/extended family members about my interests because they will come to associate me with said interest long after it has passed. It gets tiring explaining to everyone when and why my interests have changed.
 
I'm a little more open with some than with others, and I'm particular with whom I share certain ones with...
 
I (mostly) hide mine since there are Barbies (& Kens) involved. Sometimes I frame it as a GI Joe collection, which seems to be received better.

There are plenty of playscale enthusiast groups (for adults) on the internet, though (a.k.a. sextilianists, hectophiles).
 
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