not all aspies are like this, surely
I Myself was not diagnosed with AS July, 2004 and did not have a computer January, 2005. Before the diagnosis and computer I was alone and trying to understand Myself in the end who I was in the end. I see these as new tools for UNDERSTANDING who I am. Just as the forum or other forums that are out there. I have always am Myself trying to Understand who, what I am or becoming by the understanding that makes Me be Me in the end. It is to bad many do not post on the Wrong Planet. Their Ideals are being missed that they are not being heard an are not getting known to expand the knowledge of Aspergers and Autism. We should always ENCOURAGE all hear that are Members or Not Members to Post their Ideals so We can Expand the Community here on the Wrong Planet so We all can Learn together.
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Come on My children lets All get Along Okay.
I know that I do have narrowly defined interests, I tend to have perseverations which last from one to four years. But I'm now 45, and almost all of those previous interests have stayed on the periphery of my mind, and I can still talk for hours on any of them. My current interest is in WWII, specifically north Africa. My previous one was on medieval Scotland, particularly the period of Robert the Bruce - I'm currently writing a fiction book based on all my research into the Bruce.
Perhaps to be able to cope with a pseudo-social environment like this you have to have the ability to be interested in more than one thing? If all you are interested in is cattle chutes, or somesuch, you may be stuck to find a sympathetic ear anywhere.
Any opinions out there?
Hi Curious Primate. My point is more, it seems like so many here can have meaningful give and take on such a numerous, wide array of things from clothing, to entertainment, to food, and the list goes on. These aren't topics in which you need a lot of specialized knowledge to have useful interaction, but you do need to have some interest in order for it to work and well, in my case even when I'd attempt to build up useful information in my mind it amounts to naught in real life and elsewhere. My brain just doesn't seem to be adept at categorizing these things and accessing them when they might be worth sharing. It becomes easier to simply stick with only interests I'm familiar with that provide pleasure to me. The reason I (and other aspies) have interests in relatively few things may be more complex than that; that's just my line of thinking at this particular time. I'm not placing good or bad value judgments on any of this, just hypothesizing perhaps a majority on this board might be in the minority whose minds can easily adapt to different topics and people (albeit in an artificial online environment).
I think you are probably correct, that people who post here form a sub-set of Aspies who are able to post and chat about stuff. But perhaps by engaging in this you can overcome the obsessive desire to concentrate on a familiar subject, and slide into an appreciation of the topic of conversation. A kind of learning by subterfuge.
On the other hand, part of my brain keeps coming up with the suggestion that what we are engaged in is similar to a chimpanze tea-party -- a bunch of us giving the appearance of NT behaviours, having a friendly afternoon chat about often trivial topics, but actually not having a clue as to what goes on in an NT's life.
Well not all of us are "aspies" technically, that changes one thing.
But as far as representative, no. But representative of some aspies, absolutely, I would say.
If you go around to the different message boards and lists, you can get more of a feel for what online autistics are like and the different cultures of each board or list. And if you go around offline you can get more of a clue as to what offline ones are like, too.
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"In my world it's a place of patterns and feel. In my world it's a haven for what is real. It's my world, nobody can steal it, but people like me, we live in the shadows." -Donna Williams
Alas, any group with an open enrollment would not be a representation. Granted, there are many diagnosed with AS posting and many with characteristics posting along with family members and concerned parties participating. At best, any open enrollment group reflects only those who share an interest and have found a particular website. As with other sites this would be a sampling (and not a representation) of individuals with internet access interested in AS.
I just think that if you got any group of people who belonged to a site and wrote posts regularly then they are representative of that, but not representative of aspergers, so if NT's are here to get a taste of what aspies are like then they are looking in the wrong place.
I have not been offended by anyone, i am not posting to be critical either, I really enjoy and feel at home here.
Just wondered!! !! !
Eromi
People dx'd w/AS often teenaged or younger, which is a prime time to be interested in certain "mainstream" things. I was an adolescent once, too-things I had interest in then seem trivial now. Also, realizing one is missing out on social and/or interpersonal information may motivate one to seek advice/support from the sort of peer group found here. It's easier to pool info. by making lists generated by the membership here, more possible usefulness than what a single individual can come up with. Getting plenty of feedback, yet it's more or less impersonal & anonymous. One can interact as needed, freed of some "normal" expectations & conventions. Seems a less stressful "learning environment"-though social disasters occur online, too.
To paraphrase/expand on what NeantHumain stated earlier in this thread, the text-only, slower paced communication on forums here plays to our strengths. I don't have to be mentally "quick on the draw" to respond to a topic, can do so at my leisure-or not at all, there's no awkward silence at my lack of conversational material. IRL I don't have the "right" answer or way of presenting myself, but online my frustration & confusion isn't visible unless I care to explain it. On a site like this, members may be more sympathetic & comprehending compared to people who are less informed about neurology/psychology, etc.
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*"I don't know what it is, but I know what it isn't."*
Quite so. Anywhere you go the people you find there are only going to be the ones willing & able to get there in the first place. Self-perpetuating selection bias.
You never know about the people you don't know about. We don't see those who don't share themselves, only those who want/need to contribute/participate, which indicates some inherent level of "being social". Those who dislike WP presumably would leave because it wasn't serving a function & re-locate elsewhere. The population on this site is inherently communicative (more or less depending on the individual), to the extent that members continue to invest their effort in growing this community.
Losing my point, but I did have one.
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*"I don't know what it is, but I know what it isn't."*
Many of the assumptions about autistic behavior are based on observations of children and don't take into account that we all mature as we grow older. Being diagnosed with an ASD isn't neccessarily a "life sentence". The neurological impairments are permanent, but that doesn't mean that the effects are constant in the long term. Aspies are still capable of learning life skills and social skills. It just takes a lot more time and effort, and probably follows a different path of discovery. I still have all the same perseverative interests I had 30+ years ago. The difference is that over the years I've had a lot of other experiences and now those obsessions are somewhat weaker because I have so many other options.
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What would Flying Spaghetti Monster do?
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