Don't get me wrong - I spent many a lunchtime in the library and the computer lab. Loved it. But by 16 I had to repress it and get into drinking and music (which, honestly wasn't hard), just to fit in and meet girls.
The taboo of IT stayed with me, so I never openly discussed my interest in it.
Happily, online life has been normalised and teens and adults game all the time without it being seen as odd.
Ironically, despite being into 16-bit games in my teens I never really allowed myself to get into gaming in the suceeding years.
I regret that now, as I reckon I missed out on a Golden age of gaming that I would have enjoyed had I just been born a decade or so later and been less uptight about what people think.