Hobby Snobs

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Like many people, I have a few hobbies, and like many of those with AS, many of those hobbies are my "special interest", and I'm afraid I'm quite stereotypical of someone with AS in that respect, in that I will become intensely interested in a particular aspect of a particular subject and other things pertaining to that subject may become irrelevant to me.

For example, when my focus was meteorology, I was really just interested in tornadoes, and only certain aspects of tornadoes.

When my focus was photography, I was primarily concerned with the optical system and the advantages and disadvantages of different cameras.

However when participating in forums for these hobbies, I frequently encountered, for lack of better word, snobbery, where my interest in the field was seen as invalid by others, who felt my level and form of interest in the field did not warrant I be considered a true hobbiest, and more or less, I was generally ignored or left out of the group for social events even though my participation in the forums rivaled or exceeded that of other members, who were invited.

I wasn't really being singled out. I wasn't the only one "out with the out crowd" as there were others, often limited in the hobby by financial resources, who expressed a strong interest yet were still excluded because the more financially fortunate members considered them "amateurs" as they could not afford "serious" equipment.

This always angered me to some degree as I don't feel hobby forums should be so exclusive. People have hobbies because they are things they like to do, and I don't think the reason they enjoy doing them or the extend to which they are able to engage in the hobby should matter as long as they express an interest in it.

Has anyone else had any similar experiences?

on the sound and vision website forum, i ran into numerous art snobs who took pains to remind me that i was a know-nothing philistine, because i dared express my opinions that i preferred stereo/surround to monophonic sound, and color to monochrome. i dropped that snakes' nest faster than than a clapboard and "ACTION!"

In astronomy all my focus is on Sagittarius. I joined an astronomy forum and people there would look at a variety of sky objects. But I'm obsessed with Sagittarius. The Milky Way's black hole is in that constellation and our dwarf neighbour galaxy (well sister galaxy) is SAG DIG or Banard's galaxy which I'm also obsessed with. And that area of the sky has everything. Ceres the asteroid. The Messier objects, nebulas and galaxies. It's a really beautiful part of the sky too.
I ended up leaving that forum because when I asked for advice someone treated me like an idiot. NT's need to respect each other more.

As for photography I'm all about shape and colour. When it comes to cameras I'm all about exposure and the technical details. Most people are about the actual subject and what you can actually see in the photo. But to me the best photograph is crisp, shapely and with a perfect balance of colour. I wouldn't do very well in a photography forum. If a photo is just a bit blurry it has to be deleted. I care more about photos of animals or landscapes than people, unless they are holding an instrument while being blanketed under smooth colorful lights.

In physics I care more about quarks than anything. In astronomy I find the solar system boring, even our own galaxy and focus on the deep sky galaxies. The deep Hubble field of galaxies are my favourite.

I love lightning but the rest of the weather doesn't interest me. And I love solar storms but little else about the Sun.

I am a recovering art snob myself. Going to art college, I used to think that there was a line between art and craft, and that craft was inferior because it mostly consisted of works that were cliche' and boring...like popscicle stick craft v' s abstract sculpture. But I matured and learned that what matters is the creative energy that went into a project is equal regardless of skill level or medium. The amazing thing is that after I got over myself , I learned that craft can be more difficult and more purposeful that art. Not that I am a craft snob, but I love the way that in craft, you can create usable art. Example, I have learned to spin fiber on a wheel, make a broom, make yarn coilled basketry, knit, make traditional baskets, make a feather ball point pen, make a lamp made of sculpting wire and yarn...the list goes on.
However, what are you going to do with a picture becides hang it on the wall and ignore it most of the time? I used to think that a painting could change the thought processes of a person viewing it, if done with enough passion and skill. Well, that, I learned to be grandiose idealism as most people who look at the same painting, expecially if anything other than realism, dont get the same impression, let alone what I meant to convey. And the reality is most people buy paintings to match their decor, not to make them think.

Anyway, what I have to say to you is that whatever your hobby is and what ever it will be in the future...put your all into it. If money is a problem, get creative. I have seen some awesome pinhole camera pictures which dont cost much of anything to construct and it is a science to position and control exposure time to get the best effects since you cannot control the apiture (sp)...only the exposure time. Right now, there is a technology backlash going on in the arts, and pin hole cameras are becoming an art form.
Some folks have constructed huge refrigerator sized pinhole cameras that have a large poster sized photo paper in it. That sized photo paper can be expensive, but it still beats the cost of all this expensive equiptment....because the pinhole camera you can construct for less that 5 bucks if you find the cardboard box free somewhere.

Right on.
I've become a bit elite after SLR's can be purchased and operated by people too lazy to learn proper photographic techniques.
So I may be going straight back to film.

Sorry to be dense...but what does that saying mean?

Anyway, Sorry you had that experience... You are awesome, they were too far up their @ss to realize that. I love reading your posts cause you have so much creativity and it shows.

thank you very much jojobean
the clapboard is that chalkboard thingy with the noisemaking thingy the assistant director [i think] claps down and shouts "take 1 ACTION!" it happens in a second, hence quicker than a clapboard and ACTION.
as for creativity, i am a frustrated soul. i have the soul of an artist, the heart of a musician, and the talent of a floorsweeper. i really envy people with effortless talent, who can multitask without even thinking about it. i see this amazing ability in people who play the drumset or wurlitzer organ, in people who can do a million and one things while driving, who can play video games while doing their homework and chatting about proust. i can do none of these things, and what things i can do are strictly one-at-at time, and clumsily/slowly. i can't even do chatrooms because i can't think quickly enough to post replies before everybody else has moved on.
anyways, i can dream about having talent, at least.

But you can write...and that you do well. Sometimes the talent you are looking for is right there all along, you just didn't see it. You have a quick, creative wit and express yourself well. Multi-tasking coordnation is not needed to do creative writing. Try writing a short story, study up on them beforehand so you can get an idea how they are developed and put your artist heart and your musical soul into it. Even a floors sweeper has talent...there is poetry in sweeping a floor...if you listen, you will hear it.

thank you for the explanation of the clapboard

i think people will probably come up with criteria to try to exclude others no matter what the subject matter happens to be.

here it is diagnostic status and whether someone believes you are autistic or not.

sounds like what you have experienced is someone else trying to decide for you whether you are the hobby / interest equivalent of an artist or of a dilettante. don't let anyone decide for you what you are.

blabby, i can't do chatrooms either. it would scare me pantsless to even try.

I think you are talking about running into NT's who have a much broader appreciation of their hobby subject than you. Imagine being NT, all your special interests would suddenly collapse into a broad puddle of interest instead of one very clear and prominent spike of interest.

I am not sure which I would prefer. I feel much more comfortable with the prominent spike of interest rather than a general and broad area of interest.

Amen, amen. One of my special interests is musical theater. You would not believe how vicious people in online forums are-- over things like the relative quality of two performers or the spelling of a writer's name. And they act as though what they were saying was of grave importance and mistakes were an affront to truth and reason. Over musicals. It's kind of hilarious. And I think a lot of them are probably aspies. And money is a lot of it-- people who can afford to buy everything and have chosen to do so want to derive some social status from that. But so is the investment of time, both with the subject and with the social group.

Hierarchies are very important to people. Seniority and hazing are parts of almost every social structure. I know I have tendency to come on too strong at first and alienate people because of my failure to care enough about earning a social place before I start jabbering,

A hobby, by definition, is something you do for fun. For someone to have a strong opinion on something that's supposed to be fun just means that they're doing it wrong. Kindly point this out to them and move on.

I don't really like any of my hobbies enough to join a forum that focuses on it, but if someone decides to tell me my interest is invalid I'll probably just laugh.

There's someone very important in my life who keeps trying to remind me of this. I become a "slave" to special interests, pursuing them vigorously even when they hold no pleasure anymore. I guess I go from "hobbyist" to "addict" at some point in the special interest journey.

I've had mixed experiences with online forums. There were times when I was the outsider -- based on my having latched onto just a small segment of the whole, as described above; and there were times when I was the insider -- yes, often based on having had enough money to pursue whatever it was to its limits. (Please notice I said "having had" and not "have." Now I "have" credit card debt. There are discussion groups for that, too.) But, I totally get it: if you're not one of the "big players," you often get treated like a child (at best).

Funny enough, you don't have to leave these forums to get a taste of it, though I do think the atmosphere is pretty good here.
I consider myself to be on the autistic spectrum, or simply said to have mild autism. I say this because I have enough symptoms to qualify but many of them are not debilitating and some are internal and go unnoticed by anyone but me. Asperger's isn't an exact fit and PDD is vague and confusing to others. In my short time here I've seen numerous posts that seem a bit elitist about a diagnosis in general. If I just selectively read some of these posts I'd come away feeling I shouldn't be honing in on the true Aspie society or pretending to be on the spectrum if I'm not disabled enough in some way.
Don't get me wrong, I enjoy these forums, even the ones that seem a bit antagonist. Some other boards on the net get so inbred that it's almost impossible to get into the loop, they can get nasty to questions they themselves asked a year before. I think these boards are pretty open and friendly to new people, it would be a shame to feel like I'm a step off in normal society, only to be a step off here as well.

I'm currently considering buying a ball-jointed doll. However, if I do end up buying the particular one I want, I can't talk about her or post pictures of her on Den of Angels (the largest BJD forum on the net) because she's made of vinyl and comes from America. The only dolls you're allowed to talk about on DoA have to be made of resin and come from an East Asian country such as China, Japan or Korea. Personally I think that a forum for ball-jointed dolls should welcome them no matter where they come from or what they're made of.

Also, I know there are Alice in Wonderland elitists out there who think that Lewis Carroll's original version is the only "good" version (except for maybe the Disney cartoon as well), and would get angry with me if I were to say how much I liked Tim Burton's version. That's why I've never joined an Alice in Wonderland forum. I know there is a Tim Burton forum out there, but it's pretty much dead. The only time it gets a spike in activity is when he makes a new movie, but then it just dies down again.

There are also Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fans who think that the only "good" version is the one made in the 1970s, and that Gene Wilder was the only "true" Willy Wonka. There are still others who think that the only "good" version is the original book version by Roald Dahl. Being a person who enjoyed Tim Burton's version more than the 1970s version, I feel hesitant to voice my opinions to other CatCF fans.

Someone in another post mentioned musical theater snobs. Well, let's just say that if I ever mentioned how I think that Helena Bonham Carter played the best Mrs. Lovett, fans of Angela Lansbury would tear me to shreds.

Good. Sound like a bunch of pretentious idiots.