Does anyone else ever worry about being made fun of for your special interests?

[Princess Viola]

OK first off, sorry if there's a better place for this thread but I figure this board is the best fit for it since it is about special interests.

Anyways a couple of my special interests are 80s tech and 80s fashion and I'm pretty open about having these interests. I'll post and share stuff relating to those interests, follow accounts also about those same topics, have people who follow me because I post that kind of stuff, etc. It's all well and good.

And yet I often find myself worrying that there are people who are secretly making fun of me for it or thinking that it's 'cringe' (I really hate that term when used the way the internet often uses it) and weird for me to be into this kind of stuff because 'Why are you so into stuff from a decade you never experienced?'

It really does make me feel self-conscious about myself at times and I know I should just ignore it because I haven't had anyone actually make fun of me for these special interests (and I know if I ever see someone making fun of me, I should just ignore them because my interests are my own business), but the brain is a funny thing isn't it? I try to ignore it and I usually can but sometimes those worries just get too much to handle.

But anyways, am I alone in this front? Do any of y'all ever feel the same way about your special interests and how others might react to them?

 

[Rodafina]

Embrace your rad self! I understand what you wrote about, but we all have to ignore that pesky inner voice that gets between us and our passions and fascinations. Say “Quiet, you. I’m rad and unstoppable!”

 

[VictorR]

I'm not too worried about people making fun of me, but I have had interests that may be puzzling to others (including, as with you, things that pre-date my time), and so I might not talk about them in much generally speaking.

But internet forums and groups that specialize in your interest are great for such things since your background/age, or other characteristics that may be unusual for that interest aren't things that would be noticed or brought up generally speaking.

 

[MildredHubble]

OK first off, sorry if there's a better place for this thread but I figure this board is the best fit for it since it is about special interests.

Anyways a couple of my special interests are 80s tech and 80s fashion and I'm pretty open about having these interests. I'll post and share stuff relating to those interests, follow accounts also about those same topics, have people who follow me because I post that kind of stuff, etc. It's all well and good.

And yet I often find myself worrying that there are people who are secretly making fun of me for it or thinking that it's 'cringe' (I really hate that term when used the way the internet often uses it) and weird for me to be into this kind of stuff because 'Why are you so into stuff from a decade you never experienced?'

It really does make me feel self-conscious about myself at times and I know I should just ignore it because I haven't had anyone actually make fun of me for these special interests (and I know if I ever see someone making fun of me, I should just ignore them because my interests are my own business), but the brain is a funny thing isn't it? I try to ignore it and I usually can but sometimes those worries just get too much to handle.

But anyways, am I alone in this front? Do any of y'all ever feel the same way about your special interests and how others might react to them?

I run into this quite a lot too! I think we have a similar interest here! But I'm ancient enough to have experienced the 80s. I have lots of 80s tech. I like how most of it has a good deal of intricate mechanical workings. Like in the case of HiFi stuff. But even stuff that doesn't seem to have much mechanical stuff in it, like certain TVs have a lot of mechanical stuff hidden that's not obvious.

Like analogue TVs with channel selectors have a bank of tiny little tuners that you tune each channel with a wheel and when you push the channel button, it disengages the current channel and selects the new one mechanically. Like I guess almost making it appear digital.

So it's interesting! But I also like 70s technology, and I just missed that decade by a couple of years lol!

People do think I'm weird for liking retro computers and having so many of them. Even if the hobby has become quite mainstream in recent years.

I would be practically salivating when I saw some cool thing dumped on the kerb or in a junk store. People would be like "Who the hell would want to use that? You're weird!".

People don't understand why I would want to watch star trek on a little black and white TV or want to watch a Blu Ray on a CRT monitor.

I just got to the point where I realised, there was no point trying to explain it to people and really, I wasn't obliged to. I'm sure people think that I'm some kind of dumb simpleton that doesn't understand that you can "get a better experience" from the latest 8K TV etc. But I find it all as fascinating as I did when this stuff was contemporary.

There's channels that I watch like VWestlife and Techmoan and Adrians Digital basement. They clearly get it. And I feel less strange as I'm not the only person who wonders how to connect an HDMI to a RGB SCART TV or monitor.

I think it's partially western capitalist consumer brain washing that makes people so critical of your interest. Capitalism works hard to persuade people to be good little consumers who constantly buy new TVs etc and phones for marginal improvements. This is the ideal that a lot of people like to indulge in because it shows how conformist they are, how affluent, and how they are savvy. Like they have a skill. It's a sign of being successful.

So anyone who eschews this "convention" is seen as someone who is malfunctioning and needs to be shamed into conforming "for their own good". They think you must be utterly miserable with your archaic tech. But if you are like me, it's just so gosh darned wonderful, still entertaining, and fascinating to tear down and study until you know how evey bit of it works.

Of course their are ND people that become fascinated by the latest things too, in much the same way and become walking encyclopedias on frame rates, dots per inch, dynamic range and colour spaces. You like what you like. But I find a lot of people have very superficial relationships to these sorts of things. They can't understand our interest essentially for that reason.

 

[GrownupGirl]

I grew up in the 80s and I think it was a totally awesome time to be alive. We had so many of the best toys, the best movies, the best TV shows, the best video games, and the best music. I love looking at toys and stuffed animals from the 80s on ebay, especially when I see something I owned as a kid.

 

[Crochetted monkey]

OK first off, sorry if there's a better place for this thread but I figure this board is the best fit for it since it is about special interests.

Anyways a couple of my special interests are 80s tech and 80s fashion and I'm pretty open about having these interests. I'll post and share stuff relating to those interests, follow accounts also about those same topics, have people who follow me because I post that kind of stuff, etc. It's all well and good.

And yet I often find myself worrying that there are people who are secretly making fun of me for it or thinking that it's 'cringe' (I really hate that term when used the way the internet often uses it) and weird for me to be into this kind of stuff because 'Why are you so into stuff from a decade you never experienced?'

It really does make me feel self-conscious about myself at times and I know I should just ignore it because I haven't had anyone actually make fun of me for these special interests (and I know if I ever see someone making fun of me, I should just ignore them because my interests are my own business), but the brain is a funny thing isn't it? I try to ignore it and I usually can but sometimes those worries just get too much to handle.

But anyways, am I alone in this front? Do any of y'all ever feel the same way about your special interests and how others might react to them?

Omg, I had a similar special interest for a year in high school. I was specifically obsessed with 80’s new wave and synthpop, and especially so with The Buggles (one hit band behind “Video Killed the Radio Star”). I even got glasses frames like those of the frontman when time to renew my prescription came (they were these HUGE glasses with white plastic rim). I look back at tiny pictures of that era with a bit of cringe, and my mom is quite glad I wear glasses much more proportional to my face now. However, I was never made fun of (at least not to my face and knowledge! I’m sure at least a few people at school thought I looked silly). In fact, one time while ordering food the guy working there complimented my glasses and asked me if I knew about The Buggles. Thankfully there was no line because we spent a good few minutes talking about them .

In short, don’t sweat it. It’s also not a particularly unusual thing to be interested in even for NT’s—especially with all the Gen X nostalgia and pastiche going around, so chances are low you’ll be made fun of or judged.

 

[Luca]

I love my special interests and no one will ever be able to discourage me from being super involved with them, but some of the worst bullying I’ve experienced (from both kids growing up, and adults in current times) has been directed towards my special interests, and the level of intensity of my focus on them. It makes it very difficult to make friends

 

[DaisyRose]

I don’t worry about people making fun of me, I worry that people will treat me differently. For example, if I say I have autism people will give me less tasks. I am capable of a lot of things and I can do anything anyone assigns me to.

I have not told anyone I’m autistic at work because I don’t want people to assign me less tasks. My mom said I should tell them that way they understand and know why things take longer for me to remember.

 

[Patrick Bushdiecker]

I don't worry about being made fun of for my special interests, because I know how cool they are and if anyone says otherwise, that is just proof of how uncool they are LOL
I like playing My guitar and listening to Jimi Hendrix and thin Lizzy. I like learning about languages and words, cooking and foods I have never heard of before, I like archeology, and other really really cool things too that I can't seem to remember or think of right now. I have been excluded or in a setting where a bunch of people have to share a TV like in jail, I don't like watching the things they watch so I just get up and do something else like read a book, but whenever I get to pick what's on everybody throws a fit and says we're not watching that . It makes me angry because most of the time I would just let them enjoy theirselves. I can easily entertain myself by myself and I have never felt the need to go do what they do.

 

[Kisa the tea]

Quite often. I dont share unless i really trust someone or someplace.

 

[Princess Viola]

People don't understand why I would want to watch star trek on a little black and white TV or want to watch a Blu Ray on a CRT monitor.

I feel you on that front.

Like I have a modern TV, I own a 43 inch 4K UHD smart TV. I think it's a couple years old now but it's still very much what you'd think of as a modern TV set.

But it's not hooked up, it's literally in its box in the old computer room/storage room in my house.

The actual main TV I use to this day is a CRT from 1995. Not 80s (although I do have a couple of TVs from the 80s at my other house) and only slightly older than I am, but you just know there's probably people who'd think 'Why would you use a nearly 30 year old TV instead of the shiny new one?' or try and convince me to stop using it if I tell them that's my main TV

 

[MildredHubble]

I feel you on that front.

Like I have a modern TV, I own a 43 inch 4K UHD smart TV. I think it's a couple years old now but it's still very much what you'd think of as a modern TV set.

But it's not hooked up, it's literally in its box in the old computer room/storage room in my house.

The actual main TV I use to this day is a CRT from 1995. Not 80s (although I do have a couple of TVs from the 80s at my other house) and only slightly older than I am, but you just know there's probably people who'd think 'Why would you use a nearly 30 year old TV instead of the shiny new one?' or try and convince me to stop using it if I tell them that's my main TV

There's definitely nothing wrong with having a snazzy new TV, so I hope that I haven't come across as being critical of owning and enjoying one.

The enjoyment I get when I can watch these devices spring into life and do something almost miraculous is not something many people really seem to understand in general.

I enjoy learning about how they work probably most of all I think. When you think about how a CRT TV works, it's almost completely crazy that people would have figured out to make moving images that way, and without even the need for an integrated circuit when they first appeared.

I can't resist sometimes when rare variants of machines appear on places like eBay. I'm like "Oh that has an early keyboard with a late series logo! That probably means it's the one with the rare Sound IC bug that makes everything slightly out of tune! I have to have this!". To most other people, they don't understand why I'm getting so excited by "junk" lol!

 

[SusanLR]

I don't worry about what other people think about my special interests.
I just don't go into detail about them unless I should find someone who shares those interests.
I can tell when they are not interested when I mention something and they don't reply or just say something like, "...nah, don't know anything about it."

Hardly anyone ever comes into my house, unless it is a repair person or something like that, no friends to visit. But I have gotten some remarks or at least some strange looks when they see my beetle and worm farms.
Or when they find I don't have a smartphone.
Heh, it's my life. I don't care if I'm unconventional.

 

[Progster]

It doesn't matter what people might think about your special interest. What matters is that you enjoy it, and you don't need to justify it. Think about the kind of hobbies other people have - football (soccer), for example. People chasing round after a ball and trying to put it between two posts. It's quite bizarre when you really think about it

 

[AprilR]

I don't really share my special interests to anyone bc of the same reason. You are not alone

 

[Au Naturel]

It's all right now.
I've learned my lesson well.
Since you can't please everyone
You've got to please yourself.
- Ricky Nelson, Garden Party

There are armies of people into historical costuming and the 80s-90s is just another period. Having lived through it, I think the fashions were pretty neat. Find your niche online. Maybe you can work into being a movie consultant.

I don't care what your special interest is; it is not as off the wall as mine.

 

[Crossbreed]

I only share my action doll interest with like-minded collectors.
Non-collectors misread more into it than there is.

Jazzie5 & Chip5
My first female & male action doll heads, rebodied. (They are not an item.)​

 

[Jonn]

And yet I often find myself worrying that there are people who are secretly making fun of me for it

Well, one of my special interests is "psychology".
I don't get made fun of. I get attacked. I get accused of "lecturing".


Call me autistic, but I just don't understand why I can't voice my OPINION.
Ppl don't have to agree with it.
And the oddity is that my "mantra" when we meet an impasse, is: "Let us agree to disagree."
To me, the aggression is entirely irrational.
Perhaps I am missing something.

 

[Jonn]

I only share my action doll interest with like-minded collectors.
Non-collectors misread more into it than there is.

I have had ppl go off on a tangent misrepresenting my reason/intention for giving personal insight.
Psychology is my special interest and this was no secret to the ppl I was previously involved with.
"Curious".

 

[Kirsty]

Only this morning I was whistling to a Disney tune from the past for an unknown reason. It was from Lady’s male owner in Lady and the Tramp. He whistled a bit.

I grew up in the 80s and I think it was a totally awesome time to be alive. We had so many of the best toys, the best movies, the best TV shows, the best video games, and the best music. I love looking at toys and stuffed animals from the 80s on ebay, especially when I see something I owned as a kid.