Yeah, I am. Most people are too superficial for me. I don't have time to waste sitting around chit-chatting about the latest trends in hair styles, shoe sales, or compare nail art decals. I'd rather be making art, reading a good book, or watching Discovery channel. It's really hard to find friends who can have intelligent conversations. Life's too short for dumb idle chat.

No, no no, I'm not talking about choosing not to speak to people even though you could, I mean a-social as in getting annoyed when people try to talk to you, never responding with more than a half dozen words etc...

Yes, I'm quite like this. Not sure what's wrong with me exactly, if I have Asperger's or a social anxiety disorder or what, I need a diagnosis. Wikipedia's article on "love shyness" seems to describe me partly well too, though I don't think this infliction is in the DSM; I could be wrong.

Hmm.. Maybe I misunderstood you. I don't get annoyed or anything, though I typically don't have much to respond with...

That is the reason I am not talking to many of my so called friends, because they annoy the shit out of me, actually most people annoy the hell out of me, it could be cause of my job (although I do love my job), but I encounter so many liars all the time, and the fact that I am usually sarcastic and in a mean condecending way, doesn't help, although, again this bartender at T n A Pub in brampton (for Jeffrick) is at this moment the only that makes me laugh, but professionally I force myself to talk because I need to make money (although I do have a partner that does most of the talking)

I think maybe part of the problem is a rational thinkers, we can see through a lot of the phoniness of social situations. Just as we've seen the phoniness of religion and religious leaders. There are a lot of users that will act nice and friendly then stab you in the back at the appropriate moment.

I think we need to see finding friendship/relationships like finding gold, there is a lot fools gold, a lot of scammers telling you there are the real deal. I think you got to keep looking in a lot of places and not give up. Walk the fine line between being open to new relationships while keeping your guard up against users and abusers. It would be nice if the atheist/freethinking community was more organized so you could meet more people where ever you lived.

Err... pineapple? You appear to be describing social anxiety disorder. This is a real disorder that demands proper diagnosis and treatment - have you ever seen a psychologist?

I'd recommend just getting a check-up.

Two words:

Rhodiola Rosea

Well the problem is that I actually don't see any point in chit-chatting. When with friends or in club, I am either alone with my own thoughts or just listening to whathever they got to say. When someone tries to chat with me, it just annoys me and i reply only with a few words. Thats probably because no one talks about things which interests me.

Wow.

I seem to be opposite to most of you, I used to go clubbing on a regular basis, like visiting my friends, having bbq's, taking a female friend out on picnic's, parties, chats, exploring the world, chatting to the people down at my local shops, visit my mother for tea every thursday night and other stuff.

I don't like chatting online that much, or conversing over the phone, I very much prefer to be face to face with people.

For me it might be because I make a living out of Computers and the Internet, I've been on the net since about 1991. During the week I can spend anything up to 16 hours in a day doing computer related work. So on weekends I like to get out from these 4 walls and just enjoy the simple things in life. At one stage I was working 60+ hours a week in a full time computer job and on weekends I used to do Carnival work so I could just get outside and interact with people.

I am lucky in that the majority of my family and friends are all fairly intelligent people, so I can have really good conversations with them all the time. The only religious people I know is my father and stepmother, they are seventh day adventist's, and we have had some really good conversations about religion and atheism.

And here I thought that a lot of you were social people.

I was painfully shy in my younger days mostly because of an emotionally abusive strict Baptist upbringing by parents who fucked up the lives of 5 kids and never learned a damn thing from it, so I usually avoided social situations.  I still occasionally suffer from a lack of social skills, but with the exception of a few types of people, I don't really get annoyed with people wanting to talk to me.

For me, I use to be, party all day and rock all night type of thing, however in my job, a security consultant, I tend to find that people lie in all forms and manners all the time, that and most people don't interest me enough for me to bother with, most of my friends have married and have kids (I have a child myself) and I really don't care to hear stories about their kids, how stupid their kids are, or how much lacking in displine their kids have. Because to be honest, I give my opinion on it, because I don't care to hear it, and I know they don't really want my opinion, so I give it to them. In the end most people/friends that I associate with, are well pretty boring. I can talk about my job but that bores them, I mean they really don't want to know how many people are out there scamming people, stealing from their homes, from retailers, how many predators are out there etc, etc, etc. For me the simple life is boring (again this is for me, it's alright to have it if you want it, i don't),

With that said, my bartender makes me laugh, and serves me Guinness (now if they could only get it on tap) and takes me out of my misery at this point in my life (seperation from my wife and not being able to see my daughter everyday is killing me), however even with that said, most of my friends just don't get it that I really, really don't care to talk to them about my seperation, or my problems, I never talked to them in high school, why the hell would I start talking now. However, I don't have a problem with the right social situations, which at this point is non existant. That could however all change.

I'm sorta like you.

I dont know if i am a-social but i dont like being around other people for the most part. It's bad enough working with the public. I usualy work bout 40 hours a week and then come home and either work on my computer or sleep etc type stuff. i really dont have any friends for the most part, most of the ones i had went off to college and i hate having to driving any large distance... i socialize with co-workers  at work but after work i try and stay clear, I generally feel that the majority of them are inferior and dont warrent my time and energies unless they want to learn...(which none of them ever do, they seem to like the state of ignorant bliss they are in. LOL) I do most of my socializing on the interwebz and probably have more friends on World of Warcraft than anywhere else.

no i have been like this for awhile i am just now starting to pay attention and realize that i am like this. When i look back i realize that i only had bout 5 friends in high school and never really liked to talk to anyone else other than when i was forced to. I was the Metal kid that no one really wanted to associate with and i was also that video game nerd that would have 2-3 different hand-held video games that i would play while in class, or i would wear my hoodie and have my long hair and wire my ipod up thru my hoodie so that i could listen to music rather than listen to my peers...LOL

Five!? Damn! You were popular! I think I had 3 friends in high school and they weren't exactly the kind I'd count on in a crisis.

This describes my problem.  I've tried several times to become more social, but a community of religious loonies doesn't exactly offer many opportunities for intelligent conversation.  After enough bad experiences, I'm at the point of giving up.

I've fallen back on making music and art, enjoying nature, learning, etc.  I do get lonely sometimes, but the disadvantages of relationships have always seemed to outweigh the advantages of staying away from them.  Lately, I've been feeling more lonely than normal and may try a meetup group of atheists.  (Too bad it's an hour away...ugh.) 

Most people suck, but I've learned to tolerate them and put up with the standard inane small talk (like hair, nails, etc., though not those specifically because I'm a guy).  I don't really want to talk with average people, but it's worth it sometimes to find the occasional really awesome person.

I'm perceived as sociable but I have such distain for most people that I can barely mask it. I'm polite and lightly sarcastic, which with my accent (London English) just sounds 'charming' to my US friends/colleagues/innocent bystanders.

I'd say you just have high standards that other people don't measure up to.

Well Cpt. did you find the social life you so think you are missing out on?

No to both.

anti-social is a psycotic disorder. That's why I put a-social in the title.

>_>

Perhaps I should start drinking......

I smell a self-contradiction....

Do you really want to socialize with other people, or is the this internet group enough for you?  I guess if a person was married this group or one like it would be enough.  However being single, this group just makes me want an Atheist man in my life.  I absolutely could not stand to be around a religious man.

Don't you want to have sex with a human being?

Hmm... I know exactly how you feel.  (Well, okay, maybe not exactly since I'm a heterosexual male.)  I love the intellectual stimulation I get here at the RRS, but it doesn't really work as a substitute for physical contact and personal intimacy.