Those who aware of how I spend my time when writing for my blog (which means almost nobody, to this point), knows that I mostly spend my time (unevenly) between Religion and Politics, and Autism.
I find Autism to be an interesting subject, and it’s particularly relevant to me, as the one child still in my household (all others are more than a year departed on their own “adventures”), is moderately Autistic.
I decided early on, that I wasn’t going to make a regular habit of discussing Autism. The reason? There’s plenty to say, but I want to make what I say when I talk about it “particularly impactful.” Translation? When I talk about Autism, I want folks for whom it matters to realize I really have something to say.
Where Religion and Politics are concerned though, that’s never a problem. The topic(s) is (are) so broad, that I could continually write about it (them) and have something that I consider is important to say. Further, many folks see Autism on no more than a “mild” basis, as such, frankly, fewer people “care what I have to say” when I speak or write on it.
In one sense, that’s a sad reality. In another sense though, it’s just a how things are. The average person may know a few mildly Autistic folks. Most know one or two at most who are closer to, or even “past the moderate mark.” I rarely meet severely Autistic people myself (though I acknowledge that I’ve pretty much decided to “go it alone” where support groups and the like are concerned, which is part of the reason for that).
I say all this to say, I recently wrote a blog post, that was primarily concerning Autism called “The Impossible Dream – Autism.”
This article can sort of be considered a “Part II” to that entry—hence the Part II on the end of the title.
In my former work, I made note of an issue that my Moderately Autistic son “deals with.” In short, he has a hard time treating the flights of fancy on various streaming “shows” as “what they are.” That is to say, he sees something on a show, he considers it “real.”
I pointed out that, for my son, there are talking dogs (read here, “like Scooby Doo”). No, really! He is still not convinced daddy is not trying to lie to him when he says such critters don’t exist.
It’s hard enough convincing him that restaurant X is closed for the night after, say 9:00PM.
More than once, I’ve had to get him ready, walk him out to the car, drive him to restaurant X, in order to prove to him it’s not open for business. This is all made harder by the fact that sometimes, restaurant X decides to stay open after the hours marked on their website, or that were posted on their door the last time I was there.
With my boy, these issues are relatively obvious—though I’m sure there are some more nuanced instances that will rear their collective heads in the course of time.
But this piece is neither on my son, nor about Autism, this piece is on those who very likely are not, in fact, Autistic.
These days, much of social media is “configured around” the meme for most folks I know using it. Oh, once in a while, they’ll take the time to get a wee bit more “in depth.” Mostly though, life is about swapping or sharing “clever” one or two liners in the form of one of the worst and ugliest communication forms I know.
What makes it so bad, is that you can say something that “sounds good” and is totally incorrect. And that’s even worse when you consider the idea that, “A lie can travel half way around the World, before the truth has time to put on its pants.”—regardless who “coined” the sentiment, or how accurate what I’ve said is to its origin.
The simple point here, is that the average meme contains some “catchy statement” that may bear no basis to reality whatever.
This may be equally true of “non-meme content.” The difference is though, that a lot of folks are able to “catch the content of” a meme “on the way by it.”
That’s not true if the content is more wordy. When a person actually has to take the time to read content, it’s my contention that they will spend a great deal more “clock ticks” examining the veracity of it than they do when they scan a meme.
Even with content that’s not so “simply consumed” though, there’s a possibility that folks will fail to really consider what’s said seriously, and as such, allow “garbage” into their heads and hearts. This is particularly true if the person reading or viewing is familiar with the person or persons putting the content out there.
This says nothing of the damage done when children are allowed to watch the rubbish that’s on television without people discussing with them what they’re seeing.
There are a couple of truths about that which is found on various media platforms (television, streaming, etc).
The first, is that much of what’s seen there reaches well outside of reality. There’s a lot particularly that children see, but even that adults do, that is more or less totally make-believe—if not entirely so. I’ve seen a number of admissions—mostly by now-adults—that acknowledge that, as children and at times into their adulthood, they believed what they saw, only to come to the conclusion that doing so was entirely ludicrous as they grew older, and considered what was being sold to them.
The second is, as with many lies people are “fed,” some of what is shown is a “hybrid of truth and falsehood.” The purpose of such an act? The truth makes the inaccuracy (or complete fabrication) easier to swallow.
The result is, there are any number of young people (and probably far too many older ones) who are prone to believe things that are entirely untrue. This then, is the “first battle.” To bring people to an understanding of the falsehood with which that have been plied, in order to rid them of notions that currently warp their thinking.
As usual, thanks for reading, and may your time be good.