Its effects are highly concentrated and emphasized in high school do the fact that is a fairly closed off environment with a limited population.

But it remains true outside of high school. At work, I have nothing to contribute when the lunch conversation turns to sports. Our nontechnical people often stare at me glassy eyed if I bring up recent developments in computers(and I don't even think about talking aobut the work on my masters in math). But since we all have social lives outside the office and that we are all mature adults with a real mission to focus on, we get along just fine and get the mission done. But the effect is still there, and it is easy to see how it could be magnified in a more claustrophobic environment.