Why did you abandon the mainstream?
Jul. 26th, 2007 03:16 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
randomness(a placeholder for a more substantive post)
In many ways I was never accepted by the mainstream. By virtue of the combination of my race and upbringing, I was always going to be the "other". So in contrast to many of my friends, who appear to have consciously chose the subculture, I ended up here because integrating into the mainstream was problematic.
And there are many mainstream assumptions which I think are completely fucked-up. That tends to reinforce my decision. Not that the particular social niche I find myself in is lacking in fucked-up assumptions, but perhaps there aren't as many, or at least there are fewer which impact me directly.
I'm still thinking about this.
In many ways I was never accepted by the mainstream. By virtue of the combination of my race and upbringing, I was always going to be the "other". So in contrast to many of my friends, who appear to have consciously chose the subculture, I ended up here because integrating into the mainstream was problematic.
And there are many mainstream assumptions which I think are completely fucked-up. That tends to reinforce my decision. Not that the particular social niche I find myself in is lacking in fucked-up assumptions, but perhaps there aren't as many, or at least there are fewer which impact me directly.
I'm still thinking about this.
(no subject)
Date: 2007-07-26 09:41 pm (UTC)Yeah, this is my experience too. Really, I think I got in a vicious cycle of social awkwardness + stubbornness = emphasizing my own geekery. "Oh yeah? Well if that's how obnoxious you're going to be because I don't conform, I'm not going to even *try* to fit your standards. So there." Iterated through middle and high school. ;-)
But, I mean, finding social circles and communities that *did* accept me, in college and afterwards, didn't make me any likelier to try to fit in to ther circles. It just confirmed me in my stubbornness or something.