Social media is now a huge deal for most people, I see people walking around all the time with their phones glued to their face. Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat etc. Is the cause of this. On the rare occasions I get on a bus near enough everyone will be looking at their phone. Letting everyone know what they are doing or stalking someone they know. Now this may sound like I have a problem with this but the truth is I don’t and in many ways it is good for me. Less and less people are making eye contact or try to have a conversation with me. More and more people are being less and less social, which is making me not stand out from the crowd as socially awkward.

Social media is a good thing for me in the sense that I can talk to people more so. I have never had a problem, emailing, texting, messaging someone in a digital way. I have just always been a nightmare face to face and on the phone. So now I can chase orders online that I have not received. Complain to companies that are screwing me around and appear more social to friends when they have random chats with me. Admittedly I never start these conversations but I can keep them going much longer than a face to face one.

Also as online dating has become acceptable, more and more people are meeting that way. You can see someone and everything about them, never have to talk to them if you don’t like them. Meeting people out in town where ever there are rules and an etiquette. I’m male and so I am expected to make the first move, do the talking and as an Aspie that is never going to happen. So my only options are the people who talk to me. Which like them or not showing enthusiasm is not something I can do. Like them or not it has meant that I have scared off people I liked and attracted someone I didn’t. No matter what it’s the same response, from me. Online dating is good I can tell people I am an aspie from the start, I still wouldn’t make the first move but someone can find out about me if they like me they can message me, if I didn’t like them from what I read I could ignore them. This is how I met my girlfriend and it has worked out I was honest at the start and I told her whats what. Plus there was no face to face embarrassment and uncomfortable situations, any aspies out there wanting a relationship I would recommend this way. With out this aspect of social media I would still be single I think.

At the moment I am unemployed as I was recently made redundant. Which has involved applying for JSA and looking for work. However thanks to the social media this is no longer an issue of going out and going into places of work and asking for jobs, or spending money on papers every week. I can check them all from home, even the filling out of the JSA form was online. I still have to go to the meetings every week but it is easier. Social media has been keeping me connected to the world more so than I have ever been and the more and more advanced it gets the better it will be for the Aspie community in this sense. I am able to connect to other AS people through social media, get advice, give advice and because they are just as comfortable in their own environment you find that they talk more and are willing to open up. I have found out so much through Facebook and blogging websites that I may have never found as the actual physical resources for the AS community is spread thin. Any issue I have I can just type it to someone and send. I can also get my blog across to so many people.

However social media also has it’s bad sides, because everything can be done online. There are consecutive amounts of days where I don’t leave the house. I can apply for jobs online, view jobs but the more and more I get in to the routine of living on a computer the less I am likely to enter the real world. This is not a good thing, people with Aspergers are known for being shut-ins. Take away more and more reasons for me to venture outdoors and all I will do is adjust. Also not many Aspies don’t like having their pictures taken that often. However now people will take pictures of food, their pets, their new outfits, or just show how well they can do a duck face. If you know any of these people you will be in these pictures if you so much as meet up with them in town.During my teenage years there aren’t that many pictures of me. As I never owned a camera and never really wanted to take pictures of anything. I don’t holiday much and when I do I don’t see the appeal of beaches, sunsets, landmarks all that kind of thing. I assume that these things cause some sort of emotional response to NT’s and that is why they enjoy it and want to document it. I don’t feel the need my memory is meticulous and I don’t feel any different from being on holiday to being in a supermarket.

Since all phones are camera phones, since facebook, instagram, snapchat. Everyone takes pictures all the time most people three or four a day. People getting drunk, people in a bathroom in their underwear, people traveling (god, so many people travel). There are significant pictures as well but you have to sieve through this to get to the meaningful stuff. The pictures show me loads into people’s lives, I know so much about people from my past and people I have met once. However walk past them in the street and they barely notice you. Anyway back to the point, I don’t mind my picture being taken I get that people like to do it. When someone asks me to smile though or pose, or whatever then I have a problem and more often than not I will freak out and try as much as I can to not have the picture taken. As a child school picture day was a nightmare and my Mum used to hate the fact that she would have paid money for a picture where I am not smiling or I am pulling an uncomfortable face. I imagine my family approve of the pictures of me as they can now save more and have more pictures of me.

People that make events online for parties and you have to tick whether you are going to go or not is a nightmare. If you say “No” you have to explain why, if you say “Yes” (to avoid the questioning) and then don’t turn up, your in trouble. You say “maybe” there is pressure. This is the same with group chats, it’s like being dragged into a conversation you didn’t want to have. I know these things are annoying to the NT person but to the AS crowd this kind of forced social interaction is very uncomfortable. No one is making me join these sites I know and their are a lot of AS folk who don’t use any of them. I need them for a lot of things so I have to take the bad with the good.

I appear more social because of these advances in technology and in a way I am connected more so then I would ever be without it. Without it there wouldn’t be a diagnosis, support groups and various other things I have been to. Plus I can spread awareness on a massive scale. Aspergers is still so misunderstood, so it needs to be addressed. The more connected I become the more I can help. I am just going to have to learn to smile more when someone wants to take a picture.