Welcome back to Reading the Research, where I trawl the Internet to find noteworthy research on autism and related subjects, then discuss it in brief with bits from my own life, research, and observations.
Today's article is ostensibly about the coronavirus and how to handle the social distancing involved with preventing its spread, but honestly... it applies more broadly to any situation where people are isolated, especially autistic peoples' general lives.
Autistic people are more likely to be isolated because we're different, and some neurotypical people and systems simply don't accept that. We therefore find our communities online, and tend to have very few in person relationships. For some people, that's enough. For others, it isn't.
This article has some suggestions for healthy online social activity. In some cases, they're cringy: eating dinner over video chat with someone you met over a dating app seems like a recipe for disaster, frankly. As if the sounds of chewing weren't bad enough in person, now you could hear them amplified over a video call, with the clink of silverware and glasses!
Some of them aren't bad, though. Sending a one-minute kindness, like a genuine compliment or expression of gratitude, tends to make both the sender and the receiver happier. Expressing gratitude, especially regularly, has been linked repeatedly to better mental health.
I think many autistic people already have down the idea of networking with interest groups. We can really get into our hobbies and interests, and being part of groups who are also interested in those things can be really fulfilling. There are various communities around autism itself, including several Reddit boards and other organizations.
I looked into the Tools they linked. TableTopics and The And seems like products you pay money for. They're sets of questions on durable paper, which you can reference at the table to start conversations. The cost isn't great for people without a lot of income to begin with. Still, they're options, I guess.
Ikaria, Cocoon, Monaru, and Squad look like they're trying to be Facebook killers. Which, Facebook needs to die, so that's fine with me. Of the four, only Squad seems to be publicly available, and it looks like it markets to you the same way Facebook does. I'll hold out for one of the other three, maybe.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
Today's article is ostensibly about the coronavirus and how to handle the social distancing involved with preventing its spread, but honestly... it applies more broadly to any situation where people are isolated, especially autistic peoples' general lives.
Autistic people are more likely to be isolated because we're different, and some neurotypical people and systems simply don't accept that. We therefore find our communities online, and tend to have very few in person relationships. For some people, that's enough. For others, it isn't.
This article has some suggestions for healthy online social activity. In some cases, they're cringy: eating dinner over video chat with someone you met over a dating app seems like a recipe for disaster, frankly. As if the sounds of chewing weren't bad enough in person, now you could hear them amplified over a video call, with the clink of silverware and glasses!
Some of them aren't bad, though. Sending a one-minute kindness, like a genuine compliment or expression of gratitude, tends to make both the sender and the receiver happier. Expressing gratitude, especially regularly, has been linked repeatedly to better mental health.
I think many autistic people already have down the idea of networking with interest groups. We can really get into our hobbies and interests, and being part of groups who are also interested in those things can be really fulfilling. There are various communities around autism itself, including several Reddit boards and other organizations.
I looked into the Tools they linked. TableTopics and The And seems like products you pay money for. They're sets of questions on durable paper, which you can reference at the table to start conversations. The cost isn't great for people without a lot of income to begin with. Still, they're options, I guess.
Ikaria, Cocoon, Monaru, and Squad look like they're trying to be Facebook killers. Which, Facebook needs to die, so that's fine with me. Of the four, only Squad seems to be publicly available, and it looks like it markets to you the same way Facebook does. I'll hold out for one of the other three, maybe.
(Pst! If you like seeing the latest autism-relevant research, visit my Twitter, which has links and brief comments on studies that were interesting, but didn't get a whole Reading the Research article about them.)
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