SOCIAL AUTISM

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“hmm “

“K cool”

“ttyl”

“wtf”

These phrases have become part of my generations daily conversations. Ah no not the age old face to face conversations. But the conversations happening on chats. Personally for me this technology has been amazing. I can connect with so many people at one touch without going anywhwhere. It has also helped me help people like me who are suffering from psychiatric illness. The internet has normalised everything. If you feel you are suffering from some rare disorder in your neighbourhood you just put it in google and voila you will find 100 other people suffering from the same disorder. So you don’t feel out of place. It gives you a chance to learn so many amazing things. The world is now in our hands.

                                            Yes it is a double edged sword.



I confess I suffer from social autism…………What is social autism? Ill tell you what I go through or what other people around me actually suffer. I am constantly on whatsapp and Instagram. Whatsapp helps me keep connected with all my “friends” and Instagram invokes the artist in me putting up crazy photographs and stories. Checking so many stories on Instagram takes up most of my online time. So I am busy doing all this while my mother is struggling to have a real conversation with me. I understand what she is saying but I don’t have the energy to reply to her so I tend to ignore her. When my friend nikita tries to tell me a really long story about her relative she gets really frustrated when I keep checking my phone. When I walk on roads with my headphones I happily ignore people around me. I feel I am pursuing  a hobby while I am listening to music but I am just creating a bubble around me which keeps people away from me. So yes this smart phone has really become foremost part of my forebrain but it has made me socially autistic.


SEE.........LACK OF COMMUNICATION.........You have your heads in your smart phones and you are oblivious to what is happening around you....Congratulations ! THE FUTURE IS HERE!!
Where did I come across this word "social autism" you might ask. Currently , I am working with SEARCH institute as a public health fellow in the mental health department. ( And I am very smug about it ). I had an amazingly warm welcome but I came a day prior to my joining date so I was left at my desk wondering what to do. I saw a book lying on the desk called Social intelligence by Daniel Goleman and I started reading it. It was a gift from Nayana to Anand dada and indirectly by luck a gift to me. Social intelligence it says is about how you interact with people. How you express your emotions and have daily conversations. Very intriguing! So there was a chapter on social autism and it was so amazingly relatable I felt the urgency to write about it....So here I am. I dont want to have any opinions as to whether it is good or bad but I really want to start a conversation around it and how we can turn the negatives into positives!!!.......Please contribute your thoughts. 

  

Comments

  1. Unknown1 August 2019 at 00:29

    so true....we have lost the human touch, instead of enjoying a great converstaion with a friend over coffee we choose to hide behind the phone screen checking messages or stories of a distant friend. We are all slaves to modern technology.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dr Rucha Arun Shete1 August 2019 at 00:32

      hey dont you think instead of being the slaves we can use technology in a better way........its not all that bad! We can connect with our old friends and organize meetups!

      Delete
  2. Dr Medha Shete1 August 2019 at 00:59

    I agree with you as you hv commented it is double edged sword You hv to use skillfully and carefully.Weshould make use of technology but not at ost of personal touch

    ReplyDelete
  3. aishu e carino1 August 2019 at 01:11

    Didn’t know I was suffering from social autism myself �� probably have to find ways to tackle this problem in this socially advanced smart world

    ReplyDelete
  4. Unknown1 August 2019 at 01:13

    Rucha congrats , this is very good article

    ReplyDelete
  5. Unknown1 August 2019 at 02:36

    Hi the article is very apt and truly a double edged sword.We are more interested in what we don't have or the person who is not around us instead of acknowledging the person who is with us at that point of time. We then tend to miss that person when he/she goes away. So why not spend that present time with them rather than on the person who is far away?W can always be in touch with others while alone.

    ReplyDelete

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