I have to give you an overwhelming YES to this question.
My interest in what I later knew as DX'ing started in 1991 when I was the tender age of 9 years old. Our local CHR station (103.3) still played hair bands and arena rock from the 1980's and I knew through my peers, and limited outside influence (Parents didn't have cable) that there was something else going on in the CHR world. I finally found a station that catered to the 'current' state of pop music. 97.3 WMEE in Fort Wayne. My dad noticed I was listening to WMEE, which was his favorite station when he grew up in Fort Wayne. He thought it was cool that I discovered a part of his youth. Unfortunately, the support for the hobby seemed to be short-lived.
My classmates thought I was weird because I didn't like our local stations. I would suggest that they try some other station and follow up by asking 'Does that come in at your house?' which was usually followed by a weird look and some less-than-desirable comments as they walked off with their group. Some of my 5th and 6th grade journal entries were based on local radio happenings while others presumably wrote about playing outside, new bikes and the sort. The english teachers would write lengthy comments about most of my entries but there was never any more than 'cool!' about the radio ones. When I reached my teen years I learned to keep my 'weird' hobby to myself, but by now, long car rides with the parents were prime opportunities to hear what else was out there. This meant asking them to change the station every two miles and sometimes listening to nothing but static for another five miles after that. Finally, my mom would change the station (ironically, back to 103.3) and tell me that she wasn't changing the station for the rest of the drive.
In my later teens and early 20's, I really got back into the hobby after a few years away from it. Now I had discovered tropospheric enhancement and the most exciting DX of all, sporadic E. Now, the support from my parents and peers was seemingly at an all-time low. They didn't understand why I found it amusing to hear radio stations from Florida. Even my brother (who is now also a DX'er) and his girlfriend suggested something was wrong with me. I thought of it as a way to see what else was out there, as I was not well-traveled as a youth. Most importantly, I thought of it was a good hobby that was keeping me out of trouble. By this time, most of my peers were into drinking, smoking pot and even going to prison. In 2002, I started logging my new stations. This was probably the breaking point for my mom and I. She straight up suggested that I should change my ways and start 'partying like a normal 20 year old'. I told her I enjoyed doing it and even asked her if she wanted me to be like "Steve", a friend of the family who had just been locked up for drugs. After that, she seemed to support my hobby and all of the bad words were gone.
In 2008, i'm 26 years old and I still take at least 30 minutes to DX. I've been logging for six years now. I have lost friends because of it, but other friends don't ask about it so I don't preach to them. The friends who do know about it seem okay with it. I figure if the other friends ask me about the big 25 foot tall antenna tower and the ancient Realistic STA-530 in my corner then i'll let them know. If they don't like it, oh well.
