I want to write a bit more about the issue of "tech" being used as a catch all term for the computer and software industries and their specific products from my own point of view as an #ActuallyAutistic person.
I won't talk here for every autistic person but only through my own experience, so anyone with a different experience which mine doesn't seem to articulate, please chime in and give us your perspective if you can.
My autistic brain works in a near 100% conscious mode. I engage with things intellectually and with vivid awareness, or I can't engage at all.
This means that if I hear or read a term, everything I know about that term (or more precisely all of the neural structure of my brain referring to that term) starts firing in some kind of a "ready" mode. When I hear the word "tech", since its a very broad term, my brain starts recalling every possible connotation of that word that I know of, until the context it's used in becomes clear so it can disregard the unused portion of the entirety of possible paths from "tech".
This uses an enormous amount of energy, both to load and to unload, and I kind of feel it happen. My blood pressure changes, sugar levels fluctuate, stress hormones and their inhibitors get released.
And all of the effects of these physiological processes create their own vivid emotions and feelings.
When someone is talking about pieces of software, within the actual context of software, using the term software, this isn't jarring to me as the amount of activity triggered in my brain perfectly coincides with the actual usage I get out of it. There's still an enormous amount of information potentially useless for that specific conversation, but there's time, and the extras are still close to the useful context so thinking out of the box solutions and new ideas become easy, which is at least satisfactory, if exhausting.
When someone says "tech" but talks about specific programming languages, my brain first gets ready to talk about any possible piece about the anthropological phenomenon of technology, then immediately is forced to switch to the "programming languages" category, which also triggers the software category because in order for my brain to do the conscious translation from "technology" to "programming language" it has to go through the "software technologies" category which sits between "tech" and "programming languages".
As I said earlier, this is jarring, exhausting and very uncomfortable.
This is what NT psychologists mean when they say "autistic people take things literally."
What that remark doesn't reveal is the mechanism that manifests this result.
I don't "take" things literally. I just consciously engage with every possible literal or non-literal connotation of a word until the context is apparent and my brain can settle itself into the needed part and filter out the rest.
@CynAq@actuallyautistic “I don’t take things literally…” that whole paragraph is such a great articulation of the situation and what blows my damn mind is how obvious an approach that ought to be, even as it seems so strange to the Others
Like… what the fuck ELSE should a person do?! Walk around guessing at everything???
I think they just operate on "vibes" unless they absolutely need the precision. Vague notions and a semi-coherent context is enough to communicate because most communication serves the purpose of social currency transaction anyway.
In fact, I believe that when autistic people talk to NTs with the intent of precise transfer of coherent information like we always do, it feels bossy and demanding to NT people because there's no room for the interpersonal relationship between them and the autistic person, rendering them unable to insert their own personality into the interpretation of the information you're giving. From their perspective, the autistic person isn't leaving enough room for the other person's personality and their place within the social structure, thus making them feel invisible.
Which is precisely what their behavior does to us in group settings.
I’ve talked w my family a bit about this. I suppose our approach seems as foreign to them as the other way round. But it’s WILD to me.
And I guess that’s something that helps me understand my intrinsic differences with more clarity, esp during imposter syndrome junk. I’ll never feel that vibe with anyone in those same contexts. But I’m early in trying to unmask so I’m hopeful [edit: …that I’ll find it in other spaces 🤗]
@CynAq@actuallyautistic I relate, but not quite to this extent. My brain isn't quite so hyperconnected, or perhaps it used to be more so, but years of burnout makes it hard to enter galaxy mode. Burnout sux 🥴
</self-pity>
@CynAq@actuallyautistic Oh shit, this maybe explains why I find plays on words so fascinating and why I might come up with puns and other verbal playthings no matter what subject I'm supposed to be listening to. Someone says a word and my brain is calling up all of the absurd connections possible, and I'm catching the funniest ones.
@quietmarc@CynAq@actuallyautistic it’s that language-based ‘tism that made it so easy to miss… I wasn’t daydreaming I was connecting everything all at once and making stories in my head …
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