Not being heard when talking to friends?
Scandium
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Joined: 31 Jul 2011
Age: 29
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Posts: 784
Location: Orange County, CA, USA, Earth, Solar System, Orion Arm, Milky Way, Local Cluster
Same with me. I think it might be either that I speak too quietly, speak in a weird pitch people aren't used to, or have a boring, monotonous voice.
Also, if you're talking to someone one-on-one, it's easier to tell when it's your "turn" to speak.
I think it happens to everyone, but more often to Aspies. I've seen other people try to say something in a conversation but get ignored.
But high voices seem louder to the human ear. I think this may be an evolutionary advantage since screams are always high-pitched, so if you are more irked by high-pitched noises, you're more likely to help someone who's screaming. Just rambling about my special interest. :P
KWifler
Sea Gull
Joined: 11 Aug 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 236
Location: Bellingham, WA, USA, Earth
Hi,
I have studied social interaction for my whole life, and only recently figured out what this is from.
Mostly with women, there is this unnoticeable eye movements and very small face twitches that people with aspergers usually won't notice. I have noticed it is much easier to talk in a group of men because they lack the ball-of-string emotional conversation mechanics.
So here's how it works. One person flutters some unnoticeable facial movements at another, and everyone else notices it and knows that is the next person to talk. The first person says something that requires some kind of emotional reflection, such as encouragement or agreement. The second person then does the same thing, and so on. I think the main problem with people with autism is the lack of eye contact and face studying which is an integral part of most conversations. There is also a historical aspect of friendship and your past conversations with the people talking.
There is one exception to this ball of string in which you may flutter unnoticeable facial movements to the group signaling that you want to speak. Otherwise you are seen as an interruption, very rude, and your statement is either ignored or rejected by the group. I am still researching whether this is a conscious social mechanic or whether it is a product of the social brain (unconscious social awareness).
But anyways, yeah, when I was little I was always sooo enraged that nobody would let me talk, and I would often cause people to all silently and unnoticeably agree to gravitate away from me physically and so cut off my contact with them.
Remember, in an emotional ball of string, there is no factually irrelevant statement, just an emotionally irrelevant statement.
When I'm with a group of friends, and they start talking, I'll also, naturally, try getting a word in the discussion now and then. And I start talking, but... they just seem to ignore what I'm saying, or just talk over me. I can start a sentence, and won't get farther than a few words before the next person starts hers/his. I'm pretty sure it's not that they purposefully ignore me, more that they somehow... don't hear me. I have a naturally "low" voice, so that might be some of the reason, but I'm working on this, and trying to keep my voice a bit "louder" when talking to others.
Anyway, this is why I sometimes prefer just being with one friend at a time rather than a group, as the talking is one-on-one there's no real risk of not being heard... I feel I often get not heard in discussion between us all, and instead they just talk between each other without paying attention to me. Probably doesn't help that at times, I won't really talk much because the subject discussed at the moment is of no interest to me and I have no idea what to say about it, and I just stay silent, but still there, as I wait for another thing to be discussed.
So, anyone else has this "problem"? Anyone else notices this? Think this would be an "Aspie thing"?
I live same with family and cousins. Parents prefer sister and don't listen to me and give as reason they talk to her or been occupied. With elarged family i just don't exist for them
techstepgenr8tion
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Joined: 6 Feb 2005
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It doesn't happen super-often but when it does it makes my blood boil and I can't not take it personally. Its really like the people around you saying that you're not an adult and that - like a child - you should be seen but not heard. I can't think of much that's more socially disrespectful.
_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin
If you know you are not being heard, you may as well just leave the group and play "busy" or try to ask one person if you can talk with them 1-1 on the side. Also, you can always e-mail or write messages if you aren't being heard out. I have had the same problem, not to this extreme. Sometimes, it's better to keep quiet anyway, so don't feel too bad!
KWifler
Sea Gull
Joined: 11 Aug 2011
Age: 36
Gender: Male
Posts: 236
Location: Bellingham, WA, USA, Earth
I noticed that they seem to really not appreciate what I would consider a valuable addition to the conversation. Some really intelligent book learning or some such.
But if I make a really quick joke, I become the life of the party. I've learned to make associative humor about relevant subjects and topics, and attempt to interject during a quick pause within 10 seconds, and talk fast and in a funny way like I'm about to laugh it's so funny.
The best kind of jokes are ones from poetry books with the main subjects swapped out for whatever the situation calls for. People are instinctively drawn to rhymes and statements with two segments that have the same number of syllables.
But if I make a really quick joke, I become the life of the party. I've learned to make associative humor about relevant subjects and topics, and attempt to interject during a quick pause within 10 seconds, and talk fast and in a funny way like I'm about to laugh it's so funny.
The best kind of jokes are ones from poetry books with the main subjects swapped out for whatever the situation calls for. People are instinctively drawn to rhymes and statements with two segments that have the same number of syllables.
That's how most people are. Talk about the fragments of water that have been discovered on Mars, and you're a bore. But make a fart joke and everyone loves you.
But if I make a really quick joke, I become the life of the party. I've learned to make associative humor about relevant subjects and topics, and attempt to interject during a quick pause within 10 seconds, and talk fast and in a funny way like I'm about to laugh it's so funny.
The best kind of jokes are ones from poetry books with the main subjects swapped out for whatever the situation calls for. People are instinctively drawn to rhymes and statements with two segments that have the same number of syllables.
That's how most people are. Talk about the fragments of water that have been discovered on Mars, and you're a bore. But make a fart joke and everyone loves you.
Associative humour needs to be relevant to the situation. The point is to associate the subject of conversation with something else in a funny way. This other thing could easily be water on Mars, and I'm sure I've made jokes like that at some point.
If people start laughing at fart jokes, I take it as a cue to start leaving.
_________________
"Be slow to fall into friendship; but when thou art in, continue firm and constant. " -Socrates
AQ: 40/50
EQ: 17/50
SQ: 72/80 (Extreme Synthesiser)
Aspie test: about 150/200 Aspie, about 40/200 NT
techstepgenr8tion
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Joined: 6 Feb 2005
Age: 44
Gender: Male
Posts: 24,194
Location: 28th Path of Tzaddi
Associative humour needs to be relevant to the situation. The point is to associate the subject of conversation with something else in a funny way.
Well, funny observations about the topic (giving it the cynical eye occasionally) as well as looping back for a punchline that someone said on an earlier topic that fits the current one perfectly.
_________________
“Love takes off the masks that we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within. I use the word "love" here not merely in the personal sense but as a state of being, or a state of grace - not in the infantile American sense of being made happy but in the tough and universal sense of quest and daring and growth.” - James Baldwin
Last edited by techstepgenr8tion on 16 Aug 2011, 8:23 pm, edited 1 time in total.
I have studied social interaction for my whole life, and only recently figured out what this is from.
Mostly with women, there is this unnoticeable eye movements and very small face twitches that people with aspergers usually won't notice. I have noticed it is much easier to talk in a group of men because they lack the ball-of-string emotional conversation mechanics.
So here's how it works. One person flutters some unnoticeable facial movements at another, and everyone else notices it and knows that is the next person to talk. The first person says something that requires some kind of emotional reflection, such as encouragement or agreement. The second person then does the same thing, and so on. I think the main problem with people with autism is the lack of eye contact and face studying which is an integral part of most conversations. There is also a historical aspect of friendship and your past conversations with the people talking.
There is one exception to this ball of string in which you may flutter unnoticeable facial movements to the group signaling that you want to speak. Otherwise you are seen as an interruption, very rude, and your statement is either ignored or rejected by the group. I am still researching whether this is a conscious social mechanic or whether it is a product of the social brain (unconscious social awareness).
But anyways, yeah, when I was little I was always sooo enraged that nobody would let me talk, and I would often cause people to all silently and unnoticeably agree to gravitate away from me physically and so cut off my contact with them.
Remember, in an emotional ball of string, there is no factually irrelevant statement, just an emotionally irrelevant statement.
...Damnit. I wondered why I sometimes turned invisible...
(Although I do have to say days where I was 'invisible' could actually be really nice, if I just ran with them instead of focusing on the soul-crushing loneliness. Which sounds weird, but works.)
_________________
Now if only I could think of a witty signature...
This happens to me all the time. Even in one on one conversations from time to time. I can be, or am usually soft spoken, and have a deep voice, but this also happens to me when I'm definitely speaking up- which is sometimes when getting way too excited about something no one else has much interest in, and I'm sure that's sometimes why.
mindgame
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Joined: 20 Jun 2011
Age: 60
Gender: Female
Posts: 51
Location: Indianapolis
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