My 13-year-old son and I are isolated homeschoolers, but my son finds people interesting and likes to watch and listen to them. Sometimes we go to fast food restaurants and listen to groups of kids my son's age. Cursing, acting tough, making fun of people who are physically weaker, using the word "gay" a lot, not using any big words, talking only about sports or hunting, are some of the things my son is not willing to do to fit in socially with other boys his age in our small town. He is not willing to dumb down his vocabulary or pretend that he doesn't enjoy reading and learning or musical theater.
He is much more social with friends who share his interests. He is a totally different kid around his friends who tend to be brighter than average.
My husband comes from a family that talks like college professors and one of his siblings is a college professor. I have a retired engineering professor in my family. It is probably normal for my son to talk like a little college professor but he was teased about it before he even started kindergarten. He hadn't been socialized properly, taught to dumb down his language and only talk about socially acceptable things like football because he didn't go to preschool and was only around our family.
I guess this talking like a professor thing can be a gifted problem even for adults. My brother-in-law's wife is divorcing him. She told him she never felt comfortable around him or his family because of the way they talked. They used too many big words that she didn't understand.
I found this on Wikipedia about personality traits:
"Openness is a general appreciation for art, emotion, adventure, unusual ideas, imagination, curiosity, and variety of experience. The trait distinguishes imaginative people from down-to-earth, conventional people. People who are open to experience are intellectually curious, appreciative of art, and sensitive to beauty. They tend to be, compared to closed people, more creative and more aware of their feelings. They are more likely to hold unconventional beliefs.
People with low scores on openness tend to have more conventional, traditional interests. They prefer the plain, straightforward, and obvious over the complex, ambiguous, and subtle. They may regard the arts and sciences with suspicion or even view these endeavors as uninteresting."
My son would have high scores on "openness" and I am just guessing that the majority of the people in our small town would have low scores on openness.
So maybe it is also a personality trait issue.
