Offline people rarely interact with those they hate. Online, whatever our values are, we easily find those whose values are the opposite. Some people, including myself, are addicted to reading what they find most offensive. Yes, any form of addiction is much worse for Aspies.
I hate to argue with people on the internet. Yes you do! Be quiet! Get back in your box! NO! YES! He hates to argue with people on the internet. He tells me so.
Here is how you determine if you are addicted to something.. If you won't give it up permanently at the drop of a hat, your an addict.
Love the response. I feel as though sometimes I am, but work keeps me away from the boards at days (weeks) at a time, and I never even think about it. I may not be addicted but when there's a great debate going on in a thread, I'm in!
at first i chose "not at all", but then i got to thinking about it. i know i can do without it. i've gone months at a time without posting or even looking at the various message boards, but i've always replaced it with another form of stimulation. when i find myself with some extra time i just love to read the latest partisan bullcrap and laugh at the inanity of it all until my sides hurt. so yeah, i guess i'm an addict.
Addiction to online arguments has been a part of my Autistic routine for a long time. Now I have to change something.
oh no, i avoid things like twitter and facebook like the plague. if i want to spend my time sifting through mountains of garbage to find the occasional nugget of interest i'll head for the hills and start panning for gold.
1) This is not a joke -- I take 75 mg Effexor per day. I am a patient since 1992. 2) At least my addiction is less harmful then alcohol, tobacco, hard drugs.
I'm exactly the same only just the opposite. I generally cant stand the R vs D arguments, and I get greatly frustrated with stupid people that only want to argue an unreasonable point rather than discuss an issue. I'm learning to walk away from that type of quagmire. Still learning.
i don't know about that. i tend to drink to excess whenever i can, i smoke too much (and have for well over half a century) and i thoroughly enjoy my occasional mescaline induced lost weekends. in spite of these "failings" i am relatively healthy (i managed to outlive the first doctor who told me i had less than two years to live and that was long before trump took office), i seem to have found a healthy balance between the overly emotional and the overly pragmatic and i am successful enough to have simply ignored that time when i was eligible for my paltry social security checks. now compare that to all those broken people sitting in the glow of their monitors who live and die by the latest trends and internet sensations. i think i'd rather fatally overdose while suffering from lung cancer and terminal cirrhosis than be one of those deluded fools.
you can't walk away from it. it will simply follow you. everything has become political and politics has become a swamp of "us vs. them". the only way to survive with even a shred of sanity is to learn to enjoy it. learn to enjoy the wailing, hair pulling and utter hypocrisy of the progressives. learn to enjoy the angst and desperation of the conservatives, desperately trying to stave off destruction. learn to enjoy the confusion of the centrists, despised by both extremes and vainly searching for for a patch of land to call their own.
The proverbial train wreck sometimes. I'll read through a thread and sometimes just shake my head in wonder at the arguments. (See Daniel Light's post). Some of it is just down right predictable.
My work schedule (especially now) is a little erratic. I do more than 40 hours a week, but not based on a "typical" full-time schedule. For better or worse, that means having extra time during some days to spend on stuff like this. Also, spending an hour or so on posts in this forum, even during a usual work week, results in me being more productive with the rest of my time. Most of what I have to produce is somewhat argumentative and/or investigative, so maybe that explains it. By nature, I'm an agreeable guy . . . to a fault . . . but I get paid to be disagreeable and challenge management's preconceptions. That's basically my position description. Online debating primes the pump, so to speak.
I wish you the best! I hope everything works out OK -- smoking is dangerous. That is me!!! I did not feel the problem as acutely until my autistic routine was interrupted by Coronavirus Crisis. Now I am trying to make Zoom friends. I hope I can break my addiction.
i do NOT believe you are physically addicted to arguing with people online. when you stop, do you feel negative physical withdrawal symptoms? i doubt it.
It is psychological addiction. I feel empty. I am documented with Autism. Now my Autistic Routine is disrupted by the Crisis.