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Hi today I pose the question: How does your social brain work, and what is your
mental traffic comprised of
I just made notes on a collection of thoughts i had
earlier this month
in attempt to answer those kinds of questions
as you may know from my other videos I kinda like the nitty-gritty
of uh...
mental processes and how exactly
a persons thinks and what
drives them to do the things they do
and I also like
noting differences between those with an autism spectrum disorder versus those
without
I'm trying to bridge the gap and
try to explain how my mind works
so
I'm just going to read this
I think it's odd that a lot of people relate themselves to other people -- as in,
defining themselves in-light of other people
For me, I set times in my head when I am to deal with people
This is hard to explain, but I'm trying
I've always loved objects and have formed many special interests based on them
concepts work the same way. I label concepts with a mental picture so in
some way, they are physical things as well
-- mental manifestations physical things
I'd say objects, concepts, ideas, visuals, and mental stims make up the large
majority of my brain traffic
for me this is the only way I think about things. My thoughts follow sets of rules
my social brain is forced into this mold as well
which changes its function. Social thoughts such as people, friends, or the words
"party" , "facebook" , "SMS",etc.,
are not any different than my object thoughts - in fact they are converted
into object thoughts - people become objective
They are visually labeled and categorized
so just as I set aside time for thinking about high-voltage transformers let's say,
I also set aside time to think about others
you could say that social exchanges are effort-full, tasks and because they are
tasks, I can procrastinate
I think that the large majority of people come with default social brains
which make thoughts about other people subliminal,
auto-pilot like
as in their social thoughts don't interfere with their object thoughts
because the two families of thought are from
completely separate mental departments, and both can function on
their own
for me I have one large mental department and this is why I always viewed social
exchanges as something optional - something that is dealt with through logic
In my mind the concepts of an individual person i've met, who I'm close with are
comprised of the objects they are associated with
for instance, a roommate might be paired with an ikea lamp,
the toys in their room, or how their family room is organized
They are also paired with settings
they are composed of mental snap-shots, and in order for me to extract the idea of
what their personalities are like
I will visualize a series of isolated incidences with them being in certain
rooms, and what they said to me then.
So now here is my social brain at a party:
I don't like partying because the other people can actually see me
"in the raw" and how I operate when I encounter social exchanges that are
chaotic and can't be pinned down
I develop sets of rules and knowledge about how to communicate with someone i've
known for a while, something like a decision procedure
It's like all the information is accessible in this visually labeled file in my mind
It's the same reason I don't like mixing friends - I am a behavioral chameleon
and when I follow these rules, they are catered to individuals only
I have to make a new file in my mind when meeting someone, but during a party when
the encounters are brief
it's like I don't yet have a system of equations for this person
Nothing has been built up, and I cant extrapolate what would be appropriate to
say next
I don't know what they're interested in
It's like I need to talk about interests that are based on physical objects or
concepts
And that's usually my only rule when talking to someone - rarely do it find
people that can talk about these things at length.
My small talk with someone new is thin,
awkward, and can't sustain itself for more than a minute or so
I'm at a loss for words
.....so there's a small
journal entry
I don't know if it interests anyone or if they can relate to that, but
it'd be interesting to
get some feedback from
you and see how others
think -- Both with Asperger's and without
and uh...
thanks to the new subscribers and
see you soon