Such narrow interests

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Lately, since I have been interested in certain anime I've made myself out to be an anime fan, but now I'm not so sure. I come across a lot of anime discussions, and the vast majority of them I've never even heard of and none seemed immediately appealing. Plus, I still like the Disney movies I did, the Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Harry Potter, etc. (though as with all media I always prefer the Japanese language version, which is thankfully quite available for all the media in this paragraph).

I've noticed since I was a little kid that I tend to have very specific narrow interests. I would become interested in a show or song or game or whatever. I'd do well if the conversation turned toward it, but it seems most people have such a greater diversity of interests. Invariably, most people spend most of their time talking about things I haven't the foggiest about.

It causes me to feel left out, but that's life with autism I guess. I find that because I cannot force an interest upon myself, that if I try to be like most people and like the things they do I invariably get bored, very very bored.

I've had extremely narrow interests that I've been obsessive about, however my level of obsessiveness waxed and waned throughout my life - I would be very obsessed for a few months and then it would remain at the back of my mind for double that time etc. but maybe I'd still go and experience the interest intermittently.

For example, a game I played when I was younger, there was a sound loop that only played during a very specific situation, and despite everybody else loathing the sound (I had speakers, not headphones), I loved it. I wanted to listen to it so much that I'd play the game and enter the specific situation (took quite some time) simply to hear it over and over. It was essentially the only reason I returned to play that game (and still the reason for my return recently). Obviously I figured out how to extract the sound loop from the game and could listen to it without playing, but that wasn't for over 10 years after I had first played.

Unlike you, however, I don't have autism.

_________________
Unapologetically, Norny.
-chronically drunk

I can somewhat relate
I have limited interests in video games/ films and hate all types of sports and have no desire to travel in life
a lot of people find me boring.
I think a lot of people are like that, more then they think.
Some people have few interests and invest their time in that interest because they don't have so many interests to compensate whereas those that a wider range of interests, tend to spend time in one or another.
You're not alone.

Norny has reached the Magna Carta Level in posts!

I generally noticed I get focused on things but its not necessarily stereotyped or in a compulsive behavior.

It's not like I study at one thing and want to know everything about it. Then branch it and or move onto something else. It's not that great

My obsessions are more of thinking of something rather than a type of educated matter.

However it seems to be that the non autist tend to have more a obsession like that, rather than something I have.

That's just what I have been seeing, I would love to focus and learn about something instead of my mind being botched up and fuzzy.

I'm just barely surviving, got excluded from college, no one will hire me and people are trying to take my trust for me for being "ret*d". I get mocked at my poverty practically every day.

Not sure what to do under that. There is not even a book series or video game I like.

Why are you "excluded" from college?

You know, I didn’t think of my interests as all that narrow until I started hanging out with people as part of my newfound efforts at socializing. I started spending time with a small group of nerds a few weeks ago. I thought I was pretty nerdy, but these guys put me to shame. They know more about video games, comics and anime than I will probably ever know. Turns out no one really and truly was as interested in psychology or religion as I was. Who knew? Ok, I did know that no one I knew studied psychology and religion as much as I had, on my own time. But you don’t get how truly narrow your focus is until you interact with people a lot more than you used to and realize that you hardly know anything about any of the things that animate the lives of so called “normal” people. (Or, at least in the case of my new friends, they’re more “normal” than I am. Except for one, who may be an undiagnosed Aspie himself…)

PS: Before anyone points this out, I know that in one sense, there is no such thing as “normal”, hence the scare quotes.

Anime is actual a very diverse area. It is a media, not a genre.

It is possible to have a two or more people who are really into anime not to like any of the same shows. For example, one person might be into the fighting shows, another person might be into magical girl shows, a third person could be into romantic comedies.

I am a big anime/manga fan, but there is a lot of anime and manga I do NOT like.

About 10 years ago, I was very excited to meet someone who was a huge anime fan. But then it turned out he was just into the giant robot shows. That is not a genre I am really into.

I prefer 'specific' over 'narrow'.

It has to be said - major developments in science/arts etc are usually the product of specific developments.

And what about liking something popular long after it became popular? I paid little attention to Star Wars until I was in 8th grade (1997-1998), for example. I've gotten into Haruhi Suzumiya in April, 2015, not remembering ever seeing or even hearing of it in the 12 years since it first came out, even during the big times in 2006, 2009, and 2010.

For some, it's the opposite. For example, I got into Final Fantasy in 1991, when I rented FFIV (II US). Hardly anyone I knew knew about Final Fantasy until the Playstation FFVII came out.