bought Fitbit as social tool for ASD friend: give or return?

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ZaphodsCloset
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11 Jan 2014, 4:22 am

For WinterGiftingHolidays, I bought a FitBits for myself and my boyfriend. In my case, to track my sleep, and to give me data (albeit inexact) about my overall activity level. In bf's case, just for exercise motivation.

I also bought one for Marvin, our Aspie friend, but haven't given it to him yet.

I thought it could be a fun way of interacting in a positive way, and maybe Marvin would enjoy the on-line and local groups it offers. The guy walks more than anyone I know, is already really fit, so he'd automatically be great, right? In the past, Marvin had a pedometer through work, and won various competitions they'd had.

This was probably WAY too subtle: I sent him a brief e-mail asking him how he felt about pedometers and other activity trackers and the social component of their use. He replied with a wall of text, none of it indicating anything about whether he'd find it enjoyable to use one.

How should I have phrased this?

Lately he's being such a PITN, I don't feel inclined to provide him a link to my profile; he gets creepy and intrusive in offering unsolicited opinions and commentary on any information he does come across. Also, I bought him the model that doesn't track sleep, bc it didn't occur to me he'd care about that aspect. Now that I think about it, this would be important for him. So sure, I could return and upgrade.

I know I'm sounding super negative about the guy, but right now I'm just really worn down. Would love to introduce something positive into our interactions, but it's equally likely he'd just write pages and pages of critique and then tell me he lost the thing bc pages and pages of critique of clip design.



sacrip
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28 Jan 2014, 11:44 am

I'd say you've got nothing to lose by giving it to him. If he ends up not appreciating the social aspect of it you're no worse off, it would seem. But if he has a competitive streak to him he might just learn to enjoy more simple interactions.


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