Do You Hide Your Special Interest?

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I developed a special interest in languages after reading a book by a linguist named Mario Pei and so chose to study that in college, which was more or less a dead end so it definitely dealt me a setback in life. So I believe one should be careful with special interests. I went on two "semesters abroad" and was even lucky enough to be informed that the other students on one of those programs had held a poll to decide who was the most hated participant and that I had triumphed in the voting despite another student who was flamboyantly effeminate being a strong contender. Truth was that I was euphoric about being immersed in a language I wanted to learn and probably gained more language proficiency than anyone else as I mostly interacted with locals while on the program. When I was in France, my host family seemed to regret accepting me but they didn't much care that I would go out at night and talk to people in bars, most of whom had probably never before conversed with an American and were more than happy to talk. In those days French people had all sorts of strange ideas about America and Americans, some of which I believe was encouraged by L'Humanité when that was a popular newspaper.

Nowadays you can't really hide your special interests from Facebook or Instagram, they will have it figured out in no time.

It's very hard for me, because there's nowhere I can really talk about what I'm obsessed with, as it's an unpopular interest. So I'm constantly having that nagging itch to talk about it, be it here, on Facebook, and offline, but I try to remind myself that nobody cares. But it's the nagging itch that I need to scratch, and talking about it scratches the itch.

The people who tell you LooneyTunes is for babies really need to shut up. If it’s everyone around you then pretend they don’t exist and keep doing you.

I’ve had the issue of hiding my interests, it happens now too though not as bad as it was. Precisely, I don’t care what people have to say about my interests because I’m the one that’s ultimately having the most fun and being happy by engaging with them.

Yes, for the most part I do hide my special interests because I am secretly deep down ashamed of them...

I'm not obsessed with Looney Tunes though. I'm obsessed with Stephen Foster. His songs might have actually been played in Looney Tunes but otherwise I have little to no interest in Looney Tunes.

^neither am I but the OP is

I'm not sure whether mine counts as a 'special interest',or a highly neurotic obsession fuelled by bullying related trauma. What I do know is that you're seen as being a boastful narcissist, by many, for having it and posting your scores. That still being true if you're upfront about your cognitive weaknesses, as well as your strengths . As part of that I'm into reaction time as a measure of intelligence.

It involves a high degree of insecurity, of wanting more and more proof that I'm good enough. It's something I judge myself by, but not other people by.

I try to avoid talking about them at work. Probably more than I should - people seem quite tolerant and occasionally even interested. Think my brain has carried over "school rules" to work, and yeah, at the school I went to you did NOT give away anything that could be used against you.

I have a large, rotating set of special interests, and I don't have any friends or relatives who share more than maybe one or two of them.So, when asked "What have you been up to?" I always have to pick and choose which activities to talk about so they don't stand there staring at me like I've grown an extra head. And my current obsession, Homestuck? Nobody I know in real life has even heard of it, and trying to explain it doesn't help.

I hid Germany from the people in my life for three decades, having 5 breakdowns along the way.

I don't hide what they are, I don't think I can, but I try to hide how often I think about it or how narrow the scope is. Again, very mixed results, I need to get a courtesy mention in or else I become the red faced boy from the meme. Atleast in spirit.
I sometimes get butterflies saying the specific interest by name so I come up with nicknames or vague umbrella terms. But I also do that when I want to disguise how repetitive I'm being if I feel a bit ashamed of bringing it up once again. I can't not though, I can't mask that s**t to save my life.