Are we hiding as writers?

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   Peter Owenposted 13 years ago

   I wonder if most hubbers like hiding from people.
   I like writing for money because I am tired of interfacing with people, and the time flexibiltiy that writing affords me. Even though I can socialize in forums, this is not face to face interacting. So are we all on hub since we are basically anti-social? (I am not directing this to work-at-home moms)

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      mega1posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Its a lot of fun at first, interacting online without having to brush your teeth or put on a smile or brush off the lint on your sweater - but after awhile it just gets sort of empty feeling.  I mean, I miss the warmth of in-person interaction, and I know it can't be replaced with typing in words on a keyboard.  However, since I am stuck here and can't go find new friends out there whenever I want, I have to correspond online - but I'll never think it is a substitute for real warm bodies and all the quirks people have in person. It does make me appreciate the real-life interaction I get to have.

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         Marisa Wrightposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         This is exactly how I feel.  I find working at home oppressive because there's no sound of humanity around me.  I react to that by seeking out people online instead, but it's not the same!

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      David 470posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I am for a multitude of reasons.
      
      (1) I like to write for the most part
      
      (2) I have anxiety and prefer writing online. Mostly an introverted type of person, I am pretty patient which I consider one of my qualities. This probobly why I can write with relative ease, and one of my hobbies is hunting which requires patience.
      
      (3) I like the idea of passive income, but will also write for upfront payment sites in the future.
      
      (4) Freelance is flexible, even though there's a lot to learn. I need to learn MLA and AP format for college, and for websites that require one of these formats. Plus, its all about finding good websites and learning about SEO, keyword search, and of course writing on topics themselves.

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      Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I don't hide who I am. My name is on everything I write. From time to time, I use an actual picture of myself on my profile, but have no requirement to do so permanently, just yet.
      
      And, I also don't consider myself a writer. I am a person who has a message to spread and I write about it.

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      AEvansposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I am social outside the Internet but when I am on it enables me to interract with those that are not in our own backyard.

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   Bill Manningposted 13 years ago

   Interesting question. I know you hit it right for me. I am 90% deaf, so having a job interacting with people is not for me.
   
   I LOVE working at home, not having to talk to anyone or deal with questions. I like being by myself and tend to be a bit introverted.
   
   I know when I was younger I was very shy. So yes, at least for me working at home on the net is in part because I like being alone.
   
   However that actually does not help me with being social, which is what I need more, I think. Hard to find a date like this too!

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      David 470posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Lol, funny you mention introverted. I typed the same thing above. I can talk to close friends for a long time easily, but not strangers at all really.

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   Peter Owenposted 13 years ago

   What concerns me is liking the lack of personal interaction. I was never like this before

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      Bill Manningposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      Well, maybe you just can appreciate how stress-free it is. Nothing wrong with that, as long as you still get out of the house!

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   rebekahELLEposted 13 years ago

   I can really only speak for myself.. I don't like spending too much time online. I sometimes take my laptop with me just to be out and around people. I think too much isolation makes for poor socialization, and the ability to interact with others. I'm sure so much of what is posted in forums would never be said in a real face to face conversation.

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      mega1posted 13 years agoin reply to this

      HAHA  I misread your post and thought it said "I can only spank myself!"    and then I realized that this is true for me - no one else can spank me or make me do anything - If I don't get out there and meet and greet people its really my own fault - even if I only have Sundays to do that.  If we are hiding from the world, we can choose to stop, or go get some therapy to help us ease on back into the world.  Or we could start an online support group for those who need to get out of their caves!    (you do see the irony there, right?)

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   Michael Willisposted 13 years ago

   I see my writing as another outlet for interaction. I have no problems in meeting people or social interactions.
   I enjoy writing and being able to publish online just opens another door of opportunity to meet people in a different way.
   
   Since I love to observe people around me and learn, I see online interaction as interesting and I guess a challenge. Writing online allows me to interact with people from all over and not just local.
   
   It can be enlightening to see different views and how people take things when you are not right there in front of them. Especially those from a totally different country or culture.

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   Aya Katzposted 13 years ago

   I spend twelve hours a day in the pens with a chimpanzee. This is my window on the world.

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   sunforgedposted 13 years ago

   Not at all!
   
   Working online allows me the flexibility to see the people and places that matter to me whenever i want rather than being forced to see my fellow cubicle clowns out of necessity.

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   ryankettposted 13 years ago

   Am I the only person who still goes out for drinks a fair bit? I mean, I get less social interaction whilst working, but my social life was always seperate from my working life anyway. I always used to purposely avoid becoming too close to work colleagues anyway, and prefered to retain two seperate lives, otherwise you lose face of the fact that you use an employer like they use you. Becoming emotionally attached to most jobs results in you becoming overly-loyal and when your work becomes your life you probably experience an empty void. That reminds me though, I had better start getting ready, I'm out tonight.
   
   I suppose it does help that I live in a built up urban area, I can be at a bar in 1 minute, spend two hours there, and be home in 1 minute.

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      Aya Katzposted 13 years agoin reply to this

      I'm the exact opposite. I always wanted an integrated plotline to my life, but was never able to get that out there in the real world. It's much more integrated here, where I can be a primatologist, a linguist, legal scholar, a writer and a mother, all at the same time, without hiding one aspect of my being for the sake of a different persona.

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         ryankettposted 13 years agoin reply to this

         I'm not saying that I hid anything. I just abhore that culture where everybody you work with has to become your friend. Where your next girlfriend becomes a work colleague, and idol gossip is widespread.
         
         Knowing that there was more to my life after 5.30pm each evening is frequently what would get me throw the 8 hours of lame office politics. But then, I have never loved a job, maybe one day I will. My jobs have been taken because they have paid me a sufficient amount of money to support my out of work lifestyle.
         
         Maybe you are right, I hid stuff from work colleagues, because I wasn't interested in befriending them or giving them an insight into my own interests or ambitions. I always felt a little bit of power to be honest, drawing a line between my work and my true passions.
         
         That is employment of course, self-employment is often something entirely different.

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   Mark Ewbieposted 13 years ago

   What an interesting thread.
   
   I am anti social and don't like to get close to people in the real world.  It's a non trusting inadequacy thing.
   
   I like the online world because there is time to think before 'speaking' and ability to edit afterwards.  Less chance of saying the wrong thing.  More chance to create well constructed statements rather than babble.  Safer, detached, anonymous.
   
   Fortunately I have to face the world for a variety of reasons, work chiefly, and that stops me retreating permanently into a cave.

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    Peter Owenposted 13 years ago

    based on the posts, isn't there the danger that we are using Hub, and the Web, to go into our fantasy worlds. I'm just saying I'm starting to see the downside of working by oneself in one's basement all day long.

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       mega1posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       yes - fantasy!  only lately in these forums the fantasy has been kind of thin since all the pirate talkers, cheeto eaters, tribal hippies and zombie afficionados have gone even deeper into hiding.   sigh.  plus I had to stop eating those cheetos as my skin was turning orange.

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    NateSeanposted 13 years ago

    I don't make nearly enough money to "hide' from people as it were. Since the computers I use are in a library, generally that means having to go out there and interact with people.
    
    I'm looking for a job, so that's a long haul. And to top it off I live in a town that's largely built on tourism and history. As I wish to make my fortune in this town, being a recluse doesn't behoove me the way it did in Vermont.

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    prettydarkhorseposted 13 years ago

    I like socializing with people online. I work as a waitress part time because I want to polish my socializing skills offline. I am extremely shy in person, but I am slowly interacting now because of that work. It is hard to change but I can do it.

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       mega1posted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I like your new pic - you are one of the nicest, friendliest hubbers and I really doubt you have trouble interacting with people anywhere!    like some of us who are practically recluses and who are so easily irritated and angered by the stuff other people do.  not me, though, no, no!

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          prettydarkhorseposted 13 years agoin reply to this

          Hi mega, thank you. I have been like this ever since, but it is not yet too late to change of course. I find that interactions with people on a personal basis makes you more tolerant and it widens your horizon as well.

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    WriteAngledposted 13 years ago

    I'm not earning anything significant from writing as yet. However, I have been working alone from home as a translator since October 2003. I love it and would never go back to the tedium of office smalltalk and anal managers breathing down my neck all the time. I also hate the way that everyone in a wage job has teamwork rammed down their throats all the time. I hate the concept of being judged on work done by other people who might be careless or incompetent. I stand or fall by what I produce now, and I am very happy with that situation.
    
    I also like working when I want to work, playing when I want to play and wearing what I want to wear, again without having to bow to the preferences of some idiotic manager or boss.

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       andycoolposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       I think there is a basic difference in real life socializing and online socializing. In real life, socializing most of the cases is about gossip, politics and leg-pulling, of course most of the cases, not always! You know I'm quite an extroverted person who has enjoyed physical life to the fullest! But somehow I feel so empty now-a-days, real life socializing has nothing else to give me, to enrich or enlighten me! Don't you feel so, I mean how many of you discuss such intellectual subjects in real life with your friends or relatives? Do you get anyone to listen to you, if suppose you want to talk about science, or poetry, or religion or whatever?
       
       If that's the case I don't mind to be an introverted person, hiding out on here. I've seen the extroverted world a lot, but enough is enough I guess!

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    HubGirl03posted 13 years ago

    Sometimes I can express myself better in writing than in person......I try to be more social but sometimes I just don't know what to say in a conversation.....in writing I can revise what I want to say without looking like an idoit at the end LOL! But, I have to try to get out of the house more and be more social, even if it's expressing eye contact and smiling more. Just my thoughts.....

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       andycoolposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       You're right, in a public conversation there's nothing to say except gossiping or politics, isn't it? In that sense, online socializing has tremendous value to me!

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    Eaglekiwiposted 13 years ago

    I enjoy doing both ,but when I cant do one its nice to have the other

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    proactrdvposted 13 years ago

    Then do something about it. Why be unhappy if you don't have to be

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    Peter Owenposted 13 years ago

    I will give online conversing or arguing one thing - people are much more extreme in their views than when they are discussing in person. Maybe they are less cautious of offending online.

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       Cagsilposted 13 years agoin reply to this

       Just for the record, my views, opinions, knowledge and wisdom, is how I live my life. Those who don't know me, then don't understand me. I interact with the outside world and I'm constantly talking with someone else.
       
       I make it a point to get out of my home, for a period of time. Your hours should be executed like that of a business, so you have time to relax. I mean, technically you are either representing a business or self-employed "freelance" writer, if you are a member of Hubpages.
       
       I make time to split things up. Sometimes, I go over my allotted time for specific things and it will need to be adjusted, to work within the original time frame I wanted it to be completed.
       
       Time management, not only necessary in business, but is also in life a vital key(tool). It is key to a less stress type of environment.

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    camloposted 13 years ago

    I'm very communitive and sociable offline. I love being with people.
    The Internet offers the opportunity of getting to know even more people from around the world.
    They say writing is a lonely occupation, but when I do, I never feel lonely. Perhaps it has something to do with all the things going on in my head when I write - especially the short stories with all the weird characters I think up.

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    PJ_Deneenposted 13 years ago

    I don't know if I'd call myself anti-social, but I'm not a big people person.  I'm only starting to build up an online income but I've worked from home doing medical transcription for six years.  I didn't pick that job because I dislike people.  I just like being at home, the money it saves to work at home, and only being bothered by the cats and not office politics.

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