Instead of doing that, you go to the library, check through the shelves and find the book that you want, and then you go to a window, where you drop the book out onto the ground. Later you go out and find it, and take it home to learn what homosexuality is all about. You are acting furtively, attempting to avoid shame. Yet there is very little research on this evidently fairly common problem. The isolation could be caused by your being the only deaf person, the only female computer science professor, the only chess player, the only homosexual.
Isolation leads to loneliness, frustration, shame, and ignorance.
First, let me talk about the apple falling from the tree. Stay with me, for it does relate to the words that follow. You see, people knew for years that things fell down, that apples were attracted to the earth, but they didn't understand what gravity was nor had they given it a name. The person who measured it and recognized it scientifically blazed the trail for those who followed. Something like gravity is happening when people join online communities.