can an aspie live without the internt (or information?)

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There is nothing wrong with online relationships, but I have two concrete concerns:

1. The lack of physical activity and exercise from spending too much time indoors, glued to the Web. I see this first hand, and the observation is not confined to anecdotal evidence. Statistics on the behaviour of children from various countries, not limited to those on the spectrum, support the observation.

2. The lack of practice in initiating and maintaining relationships offline. This is of particular concern for children on the spectrum, for whom social interaction takes more mental effort, and who need
- some practical exposure to non-verbal communication,
- practice in dealing with ambiguities,
- to learn to keep tendencies to catastrophise in perspective.
Also, learning when and how to retreat from a social context before it becomes overwhelming takes practice.

Back in my childhood days it took me a lot of time to learn how to deal with other children, not to mention the objective of possibly getting along with some of them. If I would have had the chance to retreat into an online world, I am not sure how long it would have taken me to learn to perform any non-trivial social interaction offline.

I agree you can easily become a computer desk potato. One helpful workaround is to use a wireless headset with (e.g.) Skype, and ignore the video part of the facility when you wish. The signal usually gets through at least one layer of brick. Just like with television, it's the picture that traps you, sound doesn't trap so you much. If your computer is mobile, you have even more freedom to move about. Instant messaging traps you too of course. I try to avoid long sessions of that.


I think these things can all be done to some extent with video, and even with just sound there are some NT-style challenges. But I agree it shouldn't replace actually being there with people.

This is something for people to address on their own.



My strongest, most enduring friendships with people offline derived from friendships initially developed online. I found that interacting online first managed to get around many of the difficulties that I encountered when meeting people offline. I'm not sure this is really a paramount concern.

It seems like there's a lot of concern trolling over online socialization.

I'll be the first to admit that the internet improves my life.

But I would cope without it, like I did most of my life. I enjoyed my life with my family, pets, interests, books and games before the net became part of my life, and I still enjoy all those things (except for pets, because they're gone) and would go back to concentrate on them only, like I did before, if the net was gone.

The net has never stopped me from going out or initiating RL relationships. I was never into any of them at any point of my life and didn't do either more than I had to before the internet. Nothing has changed.
Actually something has changed. Being online I spend more time interacting with people than I have ever done my entire life (not counting parents and grandparents). Without the net I would have less contact with others.

Saying that we can't live without it or that our lives are a hot fiery place without it is a vast exaggeration. I wouldn't choose to live without it, but I would manage just fine if I had to.

I'm sure if someone was dead set on cutting the internet entirely from their lives they could do it, but I would think as mentioned before it is a question of wanting to do it.

I personally wouldn't want to be without the internet for a long, extended period of time. I have went a week to a week and a half without touching a computer or going online, but I depend on it for some things. It is a valuable source of information and news, allows me to keep in contact with friends and family, and being an eCommerce seller on eBid and Bonanza it is a source of income for me. Those would make it hard for me to just forever walk away from the internet.

Oh crikey, I'd have to do all my banking and bill-paying the hard way, and look for rare commodities in shops instead of Amazon. All those crowds, shopkeepers saying "no we haven't got one of those," queues, ripoff prices, ugly city streets, traffic pollution, and heavy loads to carry.

No way of doing collaborative music recording except with local musicians. No free movies or TV shows from YouTube. Paying for phone calls of low sound quality. Snail mail.

I couldn't make it without the Internet. I many things on the Internet. I get a lot of things off Amazon, bank online and visit Facebook and WP. I'd be lost without the Internet. I guess it's different for each person and how into technology and the Internet they are.

I'm someone who's right around the age of the swap from not-internet to internet. I first got the internet when I was 10. I had no internet before then.

I currently do most of my socialization online. I have met about 10 people I first got to know online in meatspace. If I'm having issues with something, I'll go to people from the internet first, whether its knowledge-based, or emotional-based.

There are a few things that taught me social skills than anything else - one of them was knowledgeable teachers who knew how to use what skills I had academically in order to teach me social skills in the classroom. The other was IRC. I learned more socially from people who are decades older than me, willing to help me out, who thought of me as the young geek who they welcomed into their IRC channel, and who they helped out, than from face-to-face interactions. The friendships in groups like that are strong. I've met some of those people, went to birthday parties. It's not fake interactions because its online. The third thing that helped - gaming.

Just because its in person doesn't mean its good, and just because its digital doesn't mean its bad. Both can help and both can hurt. They both are real socialization, with real teaching, and real bullying, and real friendships, and real pain.

Otherwise:
-Books, exploring, experimentation, things are all great. They are still great. Limiting yourself now because of the internet isn't something that should be done either, but saying the internet is a bad thing is silly and wrong too.

I really couldn't do it, I have meltdowns/shutdowns without it. It keeps me sane.

I was fine with books, friends and activities (didn't watch TV either) for the first 18 years of my life. Life was busy and good. I always thought Internet is great but not to be used as the bulk of one's daily life. I still prioritize any outside activities, my responsibilities and socializing over computer time. I guess nowadays that's an old person's preferences. I'm fine with that. Still no face book for me. I still call people and mail them physical cards.

It's not a problem for me. Sometimes I really enjoy getting online and other times I'm too busy or just don't feel like it. It's simply something to possibly do in my spare time, not an important thing on my to do list.

I did okay until I was 37, and my Internet started.

I've done even better, all in all, since the advent of my Internet.

If there were no internet I'd just go to the library.

If the Internet didn't exist, I would probably be a huge bookworm, and possibly a ham radio enthusiast. I'd also spend a lot of time collecting records, maybe do some art and creative writing, play a bit of D&D, and I would definitely spend a lot of time messing with electronics. Basically, I'd do the same sort of stuff my parents did at my age.

Thinking about it now, my parents were way cooler than me growing up. My mother was an artist, music lover, and and bookworm, and my dad managed to have a fairly active social circle of fellow nerds, despite his autistic traits. He's definitely on the spectrum, but he somehow managed to figure out how to be a sociable guy. My mother, who was the "NT" in their relationship, is actually quite introverted and quiet, though she doesn't seem autistic.

Since I have the Internet however, it almost makes things too easy, since it provides instant gratification for things like information, music, games, and other forms of entertainment. The time I spend online also eats into the time I could use doing more productive things, and I feel that with this access to instant entertainment, it makes me too lazy to do anything else. I can't avoid it though, because so much of the modern world relies on it.

Yes, they did thousands of years most likely and could continue to do so. Honestly I can foresee my internet activity to steadily decline in the coming years, especially if I get a better job. Then I can properly finance my other hobbies. I've always enjoyed building things and drawing.