It's mostly the middle of nowhere thing. Were the right school to come along, my parents would force me to get off my ass. However, we have a lovely mixture of borderline-dangerous public schools and private schools run by hypocritical Pharisees. And yes, I know about them all, as I've been to some of them in the past.
I time my school days based on necessity. Some are shorter than others, but some run into the night if necessary. I study the basic things, history, chemistry, foreign languages, literature, and so on.
When it comes to meeting people, I must say that I'm rarely lonely. I still have friends from years when I wasn't homeschooled.