Making friends and socialising online

What is the Instagram group you are in? He can access Instagram :) 

is he on instagram as i am and an autism group on a wednesday night at half 8 till half 9 we just listen and talk 

it used to be like that in Spain 50 years ago as well,

Church rules

the worst evil humans invented

Woiw ! That's dead interesting. I might have suspected something like that could happen in perhaps undeveloped countries like Africa, but i would have thought a place like Poland  (i've never been ), would be a lot more  forward thinkink.

I did nothing, I do not live there for 16 years already

I used to go there twice a year at first, and then slowly less and less until no more for 3,5 years

they made that change to the law some 5 or 6 years ago

I did not know I am autistic yet when it happened

about same time my ex's friend suggested I might be, and they made me sign for testing through GP. 

I was tested positive in Sep 2021

Autistic in Poland are persecuted more than other minorities, it's tabu to talk about, it's tabu to admit possessing any knowledge in that area, and so on.

Church rules, and baptists us devil's children.

THey stopped locking us away in mental asylums about the time I was born

Morning Mariusz,

Is that true ? Anyone who's autistic got bannrd from going to  school, in Poland ?

What did you do ?

Bill.

I thought young people are no longer thought how to write at schools and instead they start using voicechats earlier these days, like those in-game voicechats

At least that is what has begun in Poland,

next year budget - patching a hole in a budget - where we are going to make a cut - oh yes, education - they don't need to know how to write, they only need to know how to press a button.

banning autistic from public schools happened few years ago

Thanks Bill - I will take a look! 

I don't think it's what you're looking for Kate,, but something i saw the other day may be of interest. I've bookmarked it to go and read when i have time. I was on the OU site, and one of the short (8hrs), free courses in OpenLearn, is called ......... Building confidence in using online forums.  As i said, i've not read it yet, but just it may be worth a look.

Bill.

Thanks for this suggestion (Melon) - I will look into this. I understand what you say about the possible negatives. It’s so difficult isn’t it? The internet can be a bit of a minefield. At the same time though I online social things are quite good for autistic people. We will keep looking. 

Thanks for your response. Yes - I was surprised there wasn’t more when I looked. It strikes me (even more so after coming on here) that there are loads of autistic people who want some level of social contact - but that finding ways to do that in a way we feel comfortable with is the challenge. So many of us struggle with social anxiety but it doesn’t mean we don’t want friends at all - often autistic people are very lonely and would like friends. My son would definitely like to have friends - but at college he could not talk to people so could not make friends and he felt so lonely there. Things got so stressful for him there that he’s temporarily stopped going at all - so is now even more isolated. It’s a vicious circle. 

Tumblr is a bit strange as a community though so maybe check it out yourself first and see if you like the vibe. It's an acquired taste 

I don't really know of anything that fits. I'm just starting out socialising online. 

My only idea for a suggestion would be Tumblr. You can make a profile that's not specifically linked to you as a real person (like for example Facebook is super linked to you as a real person, Tumblr can be more anonymous if you don't share personal stuff on purpose) You can follow accounts of people who post stuff you like (I like this because it's like having all my interests in one place) so you can get enjoyment out of it without having to post stuff yourself. And if you want you can post stuff and get replies. There are also mini chat forums (I've never actually been on one but they are topic specific so for example if you like Dr Who, find a Dr Who chat, so you can choose to steer clear of heavy topics) As for child friendly, as with most of the internet it's as child friendly as you make it. Tumblr has cracked down on porn a lot recently so its not so prevalent but if you look for it you will find it, but again that's the same for most of the internet. 

Hope you find something that works for you, and I would appreciate it if you post back on here if you do because I would like to join a community like the one you've described, the internet can so often be way to heavy. 

I've found it hard finding a forum that's just for general chit chat, what's going on in the world or what you may have been doing. When you think we're forever hearing on the news how lonely people are, young & old, you'd think there'd be more.