Literal thinking

I was listening to the radio the other day and they were talking about things that you’ve only just learnt or realised that everyone else seems to just know, the typical - “I was today years old when I realised…”. Made me think of some things that I didn’t register about straight away, and now wonder whether this is part of my autistic way of thinking about things, that I just thought about things literally. Some examples… 

On for sale sites when people put something about collections, I always thought they meant that the person that bought the item had to be a collector to purchase it, as in a stamp collector or a coin collector, like it was their hobby. Not that they had to physically be able to go and collect it from the person selling. 

In the song ‘one man went to mow, went to mow-a-meadow’ I always assumed there was a place called mow-a-meadow. I didn’t realise he was going to a meadow to mow/cut the grass.

when people put ‘Tia’ at the bottom of a post I thought it was that their name was Tia and it always amused me how many people shared the same name. It was only recently that I realised it was ‘thanks in advance’ 

Has anyone else got any examples of things like this? Do other people do it? Is it an autistic literal thinking thing or am I just stupid? :) 

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  • I'm not sure I knew the Tia one. I think I would have thought it was their name. I can't think of any examples but I often puzzle over something only to realize they didn't mean it literally.

    I have just remembered one. I used to wonder why I got messages with donotreply automatically when reporting things, thinking it was some type of computer language.It was only when I mentioned the donoreply thing one day to someone that they explained it was do not reply.

  • Ahh I’m glad it’s not just me who thought Tia was the name! 

    ah it’s so weird isn’t it how literal thinking works, I think I’d have thought the same about the do not reply! 

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