Do you prefer to do things with friends?

[Patrick James]

Can you still like being social? I prefer to go dirt bike riding with my friends and I get along well with them rather than alone. I also show empathy for them as well but it feels like I have to think about it first and it's not natural.

 

[Sid Delicious]

It depends what I/we are doing. I'm happy being in the same area as other people, but focusing on different things.

I do remote working a lot and sometimes go along to shared space offices where other people are remote working for other companies. I also have a couple of people on Skype that I will connect to and just work on cam or on VR while we are doing seperate things, even if we barely talk for hours. It feels as though we are in the same office.

I think Skype/VR/similar tech is blurring the boundary between alone and together anyway.

 

[Bolletje]

I enjoy my time alone but I need to socialize with friends. Spending too much time by myself is a one-way ticket to depression.

 

[Patrick James]

It depends what I/we are doing. I'm happy being in the same area as other people, but focusing on different things.

I do remote working a lot and sometimes go along to shared space offices where other people are remote working for other companies. I also have a couple of people on Skype that I will connect to and just work on cam or on VR while we are doing seperate things, even if we barely talk for hours. It feels as though we are in the same office.

I think Skype/VR/similar tech is blurring the boundary between alone and together anyway.

Do you find yourself thinking completely about something else than what the group is talking about? Then appear "off with the fairies?" I find I really have to concentrate to follow what they are talking about. I often have to ask again what they are saying.

 

[SchrodingersMeerkat]

No. The things that interested me never seemed to be interesting to other people and the things other people were interested in bored me to tears.

 

[Sid Delicious]

"Do you find yourself thinking completely about something else than what the group is talking about? Then appear "off with the fairies?" I find I really have to concentrate to follow what they are talking about. I often have to ask again what they are saying."

Yes, but I work in IT so most of the people I meet and work with are either definitely or probably somewhere on the spectrum and doing things a bit differently is considered normal practice. A couple of people I've worked with I swear were on an entirely different spectrum altogether!

 

[MaybeNotWhoKnows]

Can you still like being social? I prefer to go dirt bike riding with my friends and I get along well with them rather than alone. I also show empathy for them as well but it feels like I have to think about it first and it's not natural.

You can be whatever you are, all aspies are different, just like all people, some are more social than others.
I love being social, if I am comfortable and in the company of people who "get me" that I get along with. However If I am uncomfortable and/or feel like I can't relate to the people present, then I am usually much more asocial.

 

[OrSomething]

Sometimes I like socializing and conversing with others. But most things I prefer to do alone, or at least not to be bombarded with chatter while doing it.

 

[Judge]

For me, familiarity can be the difference between pleasant social interactions and entirely stressful ones.

 

[Gracey]

I don’t have any ‘friends’ in my own interpretation of the word.

I have a husband who has been my closest friend for almost thirty years if that counts?

I don’t seem to connect in any meaningful way in real time with others, generally speaking.

I like my own company (less confusing and less complicated)
I do reach out, usually online to others I know (of) when the need arises but appear to have spent so long in my own company that I’m comfortable with it and look forward to it or choose it.

Can I count animals as ‘companions’?
I have plenty of those that live under the same roof as me

 

[Sherlock77]

I like my own company, I think that people can be loners but not necessarily lonely, depending on their state of mind... As someone mentioned above about risk of depression... And of course it is good to have friends to hang out with, even if it's just a few... I do find when I'm doing something with friends that I have a time limit and want to slip away on my own eventually and will just excuse myself....

 

[Progster]

Yes, I can still like doing things with other people, as long as it is an activity with a purpose - what I don't like is when people are just sitting round and talking. I find that very boring.
I think it's the stimulation I enjoy, or the activity, rather than the people themselves.

 

[Sid Delicious]

Yes, I think that's it. I can't stand wasting time! I am very happy to be involved in a group project, or in a classroom with other people, or a structured debate, etc. But just standing/sitting around for no reason with a bunch of people drives me nuts. I can literally feel each second of my life ticking away!