Introduction. And fear of social media

Hello everyone. Having suspected it for a while, I’ve recently had an autism diagnosis in my 50s. It’s brought a great sense of relief, after years of dealing with anxiety, etc that I just put down to being ‘bad at life’ or bad at dealing with people. I always felt I was just ‘getting it wrong’ and could never find out why.

Do others have difficulty dealing with social media? I’ve given up using things like Facebook, even though it gives me access to support groups (I’m also widowed). It’s such a stressful environment. Even group chats with close family or friends feel like being in a noisy bar with everyone shouting at once. I hardly ever post replies myself - in a large part, for fear of saying something inappropriate and being humiliated for it. Or I just spend days worrying if I’ve said the wrong thing.

Even posting here is making me nervous. (I’ve reread this message about five times now before posting!) Does this sound familiar to anyone?

Parents
  • Yes, I have difficulty with Social media too. 

    I have been unable to make any friends in the Social media environment. In fact it caused me to lose a few friends. Facebook was particularly bad for me. So I deleted my account about 5 years ago and it has been great for me. 

    I still have an X/Twitter account because it's useful for keeping up to date with the news and my interests. I occasionally still manage to argue with people, but it's a lot less intense due to the reduction in comment size and the fact that the platform by its nature is quite impersonal.

    I guess that because I have used it the way that I have means that I'm less worried about what others think about what I comment. I know that most people don't really get me, but these days I've made my peace with that. 

Reply
  • Yes, I have difficulty with Social media too. 

    I have been unable to make any friends in the Social media environment. In fact it caused me to lose a few friends. Facebook was particularly bad for me. So I deleted my account about 5 years ago and it has been great for me. 

    I still have an X/Twitter account because it's useful for keeping up to date with the news and my interests. I occasionally still manage to argue with people, but it's a lot less intense due to the reduction in comment size and the fact that the platform by its nature is quite impersonal.

    I guess that because I have used it the way that I have means that I'm less worried about what others think about what I comment. I know that most people don't really get me, but these days I've made my peace with that. 

Children
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