The benefits of unpopularity

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Depends which part of society you're looking for acceptance in, really. Most youth culture around my way is pretty into drugs. Predominantly weed, but also LSD and mushrooms.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9LcA67H78U[/youtube]

Anyway, me not doing drugs has pretty much closed a billion social doors. It makes me into a cooky religious square who doesn't wanna party. Seriously, I'd venture like 70% of the people my age at least smoke weed. I don't have anything against it in theory (and yes, I'd legalize it and other drugs) but in practice, getting into smoking weed and other drugs exposes you to lots of...unsavory... people. It's not worth the trouble. What's sorta more disturbing for me is seeing the people who look like, reasonably professional walking into my local convenience store buying blunt wrappers. But not doing drugs or drinking really has limited my social avenues as a younger person.

The only problem was the fact that the library was not open at recess, only lunchtime. So there was a safe place at lunchtime but recess was fraught with danger.

Class time was pretty dangerous too. One time, in front of the teacher, some bullies smashed my calculator and threw my folders out the window. There was nothing I could do and the teacher ignored it.

Well yeah it probably does kind of depend on where you are....but typically people don't seem to have the attitude of, 'if you do drugs you're cool and I accept you.' that I've ran into.

Well a lot of the people who make that assumption just because you don't use drugs....probably aren't even using them for the right reasons themselves...like those are the idiots who make asses of themselves when they are using drugs and then blame it on the drugs without taking any responsibility for their own actions.

Also why is it disturbing that reasonably professional people would use cannabis? because it disproves the notion all cannabis users are lazy, no-good low life hooligans? or it's just surprising? or another reason?

I don't have to be around people who annoy me to no end.

I`ve lived my whole teen years thinking in how cool was to be alone (alone for real’s, not company at all even in my home) and it was really easy to me to come up with many “advantages” that my life had. It’s a long story, but now that I’m on my twenties I feel really empty and tired of life. Doesn’t means it’s the exact same case of anyone here, but, you should reconsider if is really worth it.

Cheers

I guess the main benefit with unpopularity is more privacy and time to yourself. Although over time it can be lonely .

I sat in a busy hall during an entire year of high school on my lunch hours, just reading or writing in one of my notebooks/journals, or sometimes doing homework. It was loud sometimes, but I enjoyed being able to watch the other people, and I really enjoyed my lunches alone. I was the only person I knew that was reading authors like Heinlein and Neitzsche in high school. I ended up making a friend during summer that went to another high school and we would hang out at coffee shops and bookstores discussing what we had been reading over the weekends.

The chief benefit in not being popular is that you have a view of someone from the outside looking in.

It gives you a better perspective of what is really going on because you're not caught up in the day-to-day details.

Someone who benefits (is popular) isn't inclined to see flaws in how the world works.

-you don't always have commitments with people
-you get more me time
-less human drama to worry about
-you're very unique
-you're not in the spotlight
-not as many high expectations from other people, not to say that there aren't any
-you don't have to do a four hour fashion model routine every morning

I was really popular at one point.
I was surrounded by drugs.
I never took them.

- More space to work out who you are
- More time to learn stuff through reading (can put you at an advantage in college and professionally)
- Not subject to as much peer pressure
- More likely to get study done - maybe?
- Thinking for yourself, with lots of time to do it
- More time to try and work out what you wanna do
- More comfortable not seeing people once you finish school

if you guys checked out some robert sapolsky lectures on youtube you would see that popularity and social status correlate with happiness, well-being, lifespan, general health, etc.

well I kind of have an awkward situation at my school. I'm in what's considered to be the 'popular group' but I have absolutely no idea why. I think its cuz I became friends with a girl who is very very NT and very very extroverted. Therefor, she easily became popular and kind of dragged me with her. I also go to a small school. Most of the time I hate hanging out with the 'popular group' because of the peer pressure. The guys like annoying the girls, like slapping our butts and throwing pointy or messy things at us. So I hate it. I recently started hanging out with the less- popular people, like sitting at lunch with them. I found that they are way more real, and I don't have to act like another person around them. I can just be my self which adds way less stress.

i can't speak for others, but i can certainly speak for myself about it. let's face it, we like loneliness. we only engage in society because we have to. if we weren't required, or expected to have a certain minimum of social interactions, that we have to perform to get mere basics of life, we would never do it.
i was never a social person. it gave me lots of time to think as myself. to be natural. to formulate my own ideas, my own concepts, my own theories of this world, without external influence. these thoughts would remain with me till this hour, clean, cherished thoughts that i get my guidance from, for unfortunately, it's not as easy for me today to formulate them, with all the social *rituals* i have to undertake everyday. i miss those days, but at the same time, i realize i can't have them again if i ever want to build a proper life, and be someone.
the true benefit of being unsocial, is that your time is your time. it's no one else's. you don't have to worry about people, you don't have to think of people, you don't have to be with people. and you can get busy with your own world, building endless dreams. this is not something to be ashamed of. we all dream, we all build our futures from dreams, we all formulate our principles from dreams. once you're social, that's a privilege you lose.
i truly miss my days of being left alone. i truly miss the days when i don't have to be a professional actor trying hard to pretend i'm a normal social person.. but oh well... sometime you have to pay a little price to get what you want...