Do you suppose.....?

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At the risk of stating the obvious......This really did not occur to me: I'm certain you all have, on occasion, looked at online forums that are not at all related to you (e.g. forums intended for gardeners, military personnel, schizophrenics, etc.). Of course, from my perspective, they seem quite odd and unexpected. A bit of a shocker.

Do neurotypicals who have no reason for interest in ASD browse the Wrong Planet, just gaping at us all? In actuality, I do not at all mind and I've done likewise. But are we......freaks (?) to them? Or entirely unexpected. I cannot know.

What might "they" think of us? Any guesses?

i had not thought of that....but my guess is that, for the most posts, they might think "hey, what are they talking about, that's totally so not an aspie thing, i do it too man...." or something to that effect
then again, maybe not. maybe we are freaks... i wonder. thanks for fueling my paranoia lol....

Who knows what lurkers are thinking? But I doubt it. All the NT people who post here, including me, have an autistic person in their lives. It's unlikely that somebody who doesn't actually know anybody autistic will lurk here. Most people are so caught up in their own lives they have no reason to care about something that affects nobody they personally know.

It's possible that the ocasional fiction writer/screenwriter lurks a bit in the hopes of creating a more authentic autistic fictional character. But just out of idle curiosity related to nobody they know in real life and no project they are working on? I truly doubt that.

Just in case of any errant passerby-ers, we ought to impress the socks off them. Just in case - you never know. That, or they think we're all just plain nuts

From my NT perspective, there isn't anything particularly odd going on here. The things that make autistic people seem weird, odd and impenetrably inexplicable to NT people are mostly visual, aural (tone of voice, unexpected cadence, odd timing) and non-verbal (lack of eye contact, stimming). None of that comes across online. Much of the gigantic communication gap between NT and AS gets stripped away by the internet and people here probably appear more normal to a lurker than they would if they walked past that same person on the sidewalk.

I've had lots and lots of smooth, seamless post exchanges with people here that would probably be very awkward if we were to meet in person. I would be trying to read their body language and misinterpreting wildly even though I know after a year that I would likely be mistaken. They would find me distressingly talkative and possibly too touchy-feely too, if I absently touched their arm or sat too close. They would find me exhausting to be around. I would find them impenetrable and baffling. But take us both to the internet and all that is gone and a perfectly ordinary conversation can take place.

Last edited by Janissy on 10 Dec 2010, 2:18 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Correct. However, the distinction is that you (& likely other NTs) on the Wrong Planet are here for a reason; that you have an attuned interest in ASD, e.g. a relative, or are in a profession where one is at least tangentially familiar with ASD. Now, for any given individual who inadvertently happens by, surfing the internet, not implying "lurking," then we cannot know.

I do not mean for this to seem judgmental (!), but when I came across a forum for schizophrenics, I thought the it peculiar. Thank G_d, minus the religious aspect, I'm not schizophrenic.

i have lurked in the recent past, on forums dedicated to mental health-NOS ( i stole the NOS ) and while reading the things the schizophrenic people talked about i thought i could never survive it. Hearing a voice coming from under my pillow? i would die from sleep deprivation the next month because there is no way i would go to bed ever again. It must be terrifying.
so indeed i wonder if our sensory weirdnesses scare NTs...do they think they couldn't survive if loud noises felt like a slap in the back of the head? ( that's not a good reason to not enjoy life as it is imo but who knows , they are sensitive creatures )
I wonder if some aspects of autism makes NTs think "thank G*d i'm not autistic"....

I don't even think about it.

Wherever I am, be it on a forum, or in the "real" world (as if the Internet is not real ~ a concept I disagree with entirely), I speak as if the whole world is listening. Because it is.

I am me as you are he, and we are altogether. I may not be the Walrus, but I am what Iyam, and that's all that I am, and I'm not ashamed of it.

We're all humans and I'm no more of a freak than anybody else.

We're ALL freaks!