Autism Through the Lens of Social Media

The challenges that ASD patients face daily are a reality. It’s difficult for them to find solace and a sense of belonging among the general population, since only 1 - 1.5% of people globally are affected by the disorder. However, they find a solution in the same place many others do, too: social media. Through a virtual profile, individuals can interact with others more safely, since the behaviour that the general public associates with autism isn’t as apparent as in real life. Moreover, they can meet more people who are facing the challenges by themselves, helping to reduce the feeling of isolation that is prevalent when autistic individuals try to form physical connections. On many social media apps, you can choose the individuals or communities that you engage with, so autistic patients can directly find others without the hassle of dealing with the “regular” people. As an online autistic community thrives through interaction, a web of relationships is formed. These relationships are crucial for providing support among themselves, support which is lacking in other places. Being on social media removes the geographical limitation of receiving support from global individuals. Those individuals feel more after hearing their own experiences and perspectives regarding how they cope with ASD. In different environments, ASD individuals may face divergent contexts that can be explored. Therefore, autistic interactions on social media provide a relevant database to discover the personal difficulties that autistic individuals face.

Some common topics that these individuals discussed were challenges in forming new relationships, struggles with managing behaviour unique to ASD, and other miscellaneous topics. Each of these is related to how autistic patients have different social communication that features a multitude of repetition, which sets them apart from the “ideal” individual. In other words, societal pressures against the way ASD individuals communicate, although a majority of it is uncontrollable, are responsible for the difficulties discussed on many social media websites. 

Many autistic communities, whether in real life or virtually, face expectations and pressure to mask their neurodivergent traits. Otherwise, it becomes a burden for those individuals to try to be “just like a normal person". Signs of autism are deemed to be characterized by a specific set of supposedly unnatural behaviours, behaviours which could get one shunned. Social media gives insight into the public perspective with regard to ASD while also providing an avenue for more awareness, since people are more willing to share their opinions virtually than in real life. However, through a multitude of interactions between non-ASD individuals sharing their perceptions of ASD, the use of social media is shown to be highly vulnerable to inaccurate information, which could lead to misinformed truths regarding AsD. By extension, the widespread use of social media could cause such to result in amplified ripples of misinformation. Indeed, on TikTok, only 27% of the information about ASD was accurate, 32% was overgeneralized, and 41% was inaccurate. If ASD individuals step in to confront these margins of error, it could support the community by correcting the misinformation through their own personal experiences and make it easier for ASD patients to connect and seek support in a safe online environment. In contrast to the physical community, autistic adults have been found to have a higher satisfaction rate as friendships are easier to form virtually. The receiving ends of the friendships, autistic or not, aren’t disgusted by the autistic behaviour that society shuns. 

The social communication challenges that are highly discussed through social media forums feature many contexts. For example, they concern relationships, friendships, and emotional discomfort within these relationships. In romantic relationships, many are reaching out to other autistic people to understand the behaviour of an autistic partner and for advice about how to date as an autistic. It’s important for ASD patients to be able to have a partner because it gives them the opportunity to have someone they can seek support in navigating and managing their difficulties, especially because their partner is someone with whom the ASD individual feels comfortable in sharing their thoughts and emotions. Regarding these relationships, there are two subtopics of interest, according to Wiley Online Library’s investigation of the ASD communities on Reddit: they are long-term dating and early stages of it. When discussing long-term dating, the common themes referred to are the experiences of relationship, communication and emotional aspects, misunderstanding and how autism impacts the relationship, and their frustrations about the lack of awareness of autism on emotions regarding their non-autistic partner. On the other hand, when discussing the early stages of dating, common themes concern navigating dating apps, exposing their autistic profile, social anxiety of finding dates, how to interact (since it’s challenging), etc. 

Among these discussion(s) some of their greatest burdens come to light. For example,a large reason why ASD individuals have so much trouble with social communication is because of the discomfort with eye contact. For any individual, eye contact is important in relationships, as it shows that you care and are interested in another person. In this way, relationships are more stable, helping to build trust among peers. This helps explain why many of them are seeking support on social media regarding relationships, whether it’s a romantic one or just a mere friendship.

Additionally, ASD patients are pressured to hide their autistic profile, even online. Presumably, it makes them less appealing to non-autistic folks in forming relationships or whatnot. Through a practice called masking, where those individuals force themselves to be controlled and adhere to expectations of how an autistic person should behave, it causes the autistic individual to face emotional damage. Therefore, the biggest advice they seek is how to be themselves while dealing with the consequences that come along. 

The existence of ASD communities on multiple social media sites provides evidence that those platforms can be used as a place where community interaction can foster solutions. If a closer eye is used to examine their perspectives, it could help redirect community action to help combat the mental health struggles that ASD brings along. However, that involves not just a few individuals bringing attention to the issues, but requires even those who have no connection to ASD to willingly step in. The information is out there; it just needs to be used effectively.