Do people look down on you for not liking outdoor activities

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I am 19 and I am not much of an outdoorsy kind of person. I absolutely hate sports or most outdoor activities in general and most of what I like to do involves being indoors. I like to read anime, play video games, read fanfiction, browse the internet, and I am currently getting into Tabletop RPGs. But for some reason people seem to look down on you if you are not an outdoors kind of person as if something is wrong with you. Why do you think that is? Have you ever been look down upon for not wanting to be in a outdoors activities?

It's a social status thing. You can't rise in social status unless you compete and win. Most outdoor games are competitive. By not competing in outdoor games, you essentially have no social status.

Welcome to NerdWorld.

There are a lot (A LOT) of people that don't like the outdoor activities, the problem is that usually they are conviced to join those activities because it's "what they have to do". It's a social rule and sometimes they have to accomplish it as an obligation or people will get angry.

But a lot of people is happier alone or sharing interests with only one or two friends.

I agree. The people who enjoy competitive activities seem to always be on the lookout for an easy win, too. By competing against the rest of us, they get their victory and the social perks that come with being a winner. In the meantime, us "losers" are derided and criticized for losing, and our social status seems to drop even lower than if we had not competed at all.


That's me! My idea of fun is to play a tabletop board game or RPG with 4 or 5 friends, eat fastfood, drink (diet) soda, crack stupid jokes, and just generally have a good time.

With a board game, we're all equally matched, and the winner is often determined by "luck" - the roll of a die or the flip of a card.

With RPGs, there are no winners or losers - only participants. Maybe this is why competitive people look down on RPGs, and consider RPG players as "losers", "r*t*rds" and "f*gg*ts (their words, not mine) - we're not competing for anything, so what we're doing is a waste of time (to them).

Yes, that's what I like about sharing these kind of interests. It's just that you are joining the interest together, not using the interest to beat the rest of the group as if we were a bunch of apes looking for the leader of the day

I remember when I tried to play a RPG with my friends. They are similar to me but they still want to join the "socialite world", they say that if I don't want to go to a disco then I'm a granny.

Well, this happened while playing RPG with my friends (the first and last time I tried to play a RPG).

Master (me) - You are in the inn, blah blah, map of the inn, blah blah, you are very hungry and you need to eat something as soon as possible.
Friend one - Boring, I don't want to eat, I'm going to sleep.
Me - You have to eat because you are starving, and you have to increase your resistance points after fighting this and that and blah blah blah, and you can't sleep in the inn because you don't have enough money, I told you that when you insisted in leaving the town before getting some money.
Friend two - We don't care, we hit the innkeeper and he decides we can sleep there for free.
Me - Ok, forget it, you are in the inn and a man get in.
Friend one - IS HE HOT?
Friend three - Yesss, ¡hot please, hot please!
Me - Forget the RPG.

Do what ever you like, as long as you are happy and you are not harming anyone. No problem.

It seems to be that boys are expected to be interested in sports (like football) or cars, which are both outdoor interests. Girls don't get so much high expectations for sports, although we are frowned upon if we aren't interested in putting make-up on or styling our hair or being obsessed with clothes shopping.

My brother is a 26-year-old NT but is not interested in any sports, nor does he want to drive, although he has got the money. He's just never been interested, and some people often get on to him because they think that all young men should love driving about in cars and have some sort of interest in football or other popular sports. So he gets frowned upon. I get frowned upon too because I hate shopping for clothes and I can't be bothered to get a nice hairstyle or wear much make-up.

Civ, let me draw an important distinction with a question: Do you hate being outside, or do you not like competitive activities? The reason I'm asking is that the two are hardly synonymous.

As for me, I like being outside, but don't like competitive activities whether indoors or outdoors (competitive activities can be done indoors; think pool, ping pong, chess, cards, and other games).

In fact, my lifelong, dream was to own a large tract of land so I could take long walks undisturbed by other people. Not only is there something deeply satisfying with being able to watch the wildlife, but for me it is incredibly relaxing to go out alone and walk a couple of miles in complete solitude and silence, especially after a stressful day, which I don't handle well. It sure beats a drug habit or other neurotic behaviors.

If you don't know if this fits you, I would encourage you to find out. We all not only need a certain amount of sunshine every day for our health, but we need exercise too. I think spending a certain amount of time outside is also good for our mental health.

Obviously, not everybody can afford what I have, especially when younger. But I would strongly encourage you to find a park with some large natural areas, find out when that park is least crowded, and visit then. No good can come of it when we isolate ourselves completely from our natural environment, of which we are a part.

This is the thing that frustrates me most about certain people around me. Whenever I tell people that summer weather depresses me, or that I hate sports or I don't want to go outside, I'm always looked at as weird, or the odd one out. But really it's just my preference! Summer brings this to light the most, when everybody wants to go to the beach, and I just want to stay home.