I certainly am guilty of hidding my (perlcapt's) technological candle under a bushel. It is a social thing. I've noticed that regular folks don't much open up to geeks. It may be fun to talk about geeks bitting heads off of chickens, and laugh about it later, but who wants to have a personal friend who is so depraved!

On the other hand, once I've be able to do something that "common" man can appreciate, then I feel free to show my technical instrests. Finally, after that door has been opened, then I can talk about my experience.

I imagine it is something like "coming out of the closet," but I may be wrong.

How did I become so twisted?

After saturating myself in technology, I feel I need to refresh by relating to folks who prefer to talk about farming, or boats, or their families, or even their religon.

On the other hand:
If I obssess on my technology and tools, I start turning wierd, unsocial, unapproachable, maybe even somewhat psychotic. Compulsion and psychosis are closely related.

My family tolerates my sitting with the laptop in the living room. But they expect me to be able to put it down and engage in a conversation with out any hesitation. They don't like to feel that they are competing with the computer/Internet for attention.