I cannot stand anything shorter than a crew sock. It drives me nuts to have the sock end around my ankle. I’d rather go barefoot. You know that feeling when you don’t wear jewellery for a long time and suddenly you start wearing a ring and you’re mindful of wearing it all day? I could probably get used to it over time, but I’ve never cared enough to do so.
Here on the Straight Dope Message Board, we endeavor to keep the typical sock length to less than one day.
The “Other” option must have been mistakenly deleted from your poll. 
When I’m wearing shoes, I want ankle or crew socks. When I’m not wearing shoes but my floors are cold, I like what we call “footies,” which cover only the foot but leave the ankle free. The rest of the time I go barefoot.
Crew socks when I’m wearing shoes, because I can’t have my ankles exposed at work in the lab. I also have several pairs of little bitty socks that hit below the ankle, which I generally wear when I’m at home and shoeless. I am almost never ever without socks on my feet, even when sleeping.
I wear bare or ankle socks a vast majority of the time. Obviously, there are exceptions such as when dress socks are required.
I believe this is a generational thing. Guys my age (30s) wore the short socks, bare or ankle, most of the time. For one thing, I think a sock that goes above the ankle wears out your leg hair, which makes your legs look silly when those socks aren’t on. Anyone wearing crew socks was out of touch.
I’m noticing a phenomenon now among high school and college age guys that are wearing the crew socks with shorts regularly. I guess I’m out of touch now. I hate when that happens.
Depends on the time of year. Spring and fall get ankle socks. Summer is bare, and winter is ankle with a pair of warm tall woollies over.
Missing option is tube socks. They’re usually a bit longer than crew, and of course no heel pouch. I wear crew mostly. When I see someone wearing one of the top two options with sneakers, it grosses me out and all I can think about is their sweat filled shoes. I don’t know a male who wears the longer one, but they look nice on a pretty girl.
Exactly. I’m usually barefoot at home, and in the summer I wear sandals when I go outside, most of the time, but if I’m wearing ‘real’ shoes I wear crew socks. All three of my kids wear those little short things and it makes me jumpy just to see them. The shortest I can go is about the length of the folded cuff ones that SpoilerVirgin mentioned. Even those don’t feel quite right.
When I was a little girl my mom made me wear white cotton anklets with fold-down cuffs (standard issue little girl attire at the time). She never could understand how the tops of them got so stretched out, but it was because I was always unfolding them and pulling them up. I hated those things.
:mad:
I prefer barefoot in the house and ankle socks when I am in shoes and out of the house.
I ONLY wear tube socks, 85% cotton or higher. I’m hyperhidrotic and I appreciate the extra material to soak/wick up the sweat. My feet are kinda tiny (size 6.5) so none of the “shaped” socks work for me despite their claims of fitting size 6-9. I’ve gotten so used to the feel of long socks that I can’t stand the feel of my pant legs rubbing against my bare calves and ankles.
I also can’t stand the feeling of socks bunched around my ankles and since tube socks reach just below my knees (ok, I confess, they actually reach a few inches past my knees. I fold them down) the bulge of my calves help keep them from sliding down.
I had a friend who watched me put on my socks tell me it was kind of disturbing because my legs are slender and shapely and the motions too closely resembled a woman putting on stockings, but I’m a guy and despite being Asian, my legs are sasquatch hairy.
On a side note, I remember seeing sock garters in old B&W films and wondering “why don’t the just make the socks a few inches longer and do away with the garters?!” I also thought a much improved version of sock garters would clip to the top of the socks and stretch up to button into the bottom of dress shirts (which would be standardized to have button holes sewn in the front and tails) that way they serve the double purpose of holding your socks up and keeping your shirt tucked in. No more shirts mushrooming at the waist! In fact, I should work on turning this idea into some serious money…
Crew. Ankle socks feel like socks which won’t stay up. Oh, and all cotton.
I think ankle socks are the most comfortable. I don’t generally worry about how my socks look, though, because I mostly only wear them to work with sneakers and jeans and they’re completely hidden.
I wear knee socks with my (very casual) flats in the winter sometimes, mostly because they’re thin and come in more colors and patterns. And I would look really stupid wearing thick white socks with flats. And when I wear boots, knee socks are more comfortable.
That’s cool, comfort should be high on everyone’s list. People (well males at least) who wear those socks though, colored or not, with dress pants and dress shoes have something wrong with them.
Always crew made of bamboo; hate ankle socks - they’re just pox.
All depends. If I’m wearing jeans and gym shoes, crew length folded over so they’re ankle high. If I’m wearing work clothes that aren’t jeans, knee length dress socks. If I’m sitting around the house in sweats and such, knee length heavy socks. Or crew length heavy socks. My feet get cold.
“Bare” is my summertime vote. Those black GoldToe socks that cover pretty much just the foot? They’re my pick. For fall into spring, I prefer Smartwool socks, with polypro liners if necessary.
Most of the time, I prefer knee-highs, but in the summer, I’ll wear ankle socks when I’m in shorts.
Tube socks or knee-length dress socks, depending on the dressiness of the occasion. I can’t stand bare ankle showing under long trousers when I cross my legs.
With short trousers, only ankle or crew will do.
Ankle with sneakers, knee with anything else.