Untypical: How the world isn’t built for autistic people and what we should all do about it

by Pete Wharmby

I spend rather too much of my day on Twitter, using social media to socialise. I say this with a completely straight face, as spending time on there, chatting to the people I know (most of whom I’ve never met in person) is effective socialising as far as I’m concerned. We share ideas, jokes, sympathy; we tell our stories, confide and advise. We just do it in writing and while in different rooms, towns, countries, hemispheres. I’ve no idea why this is viewed so disparagingly but it’s obvious that the majority of people see this kind of solely online relationship as a pale imitation of the real thing, where you do all of these things while sitting next to each other. It’s unclear to me how sitting next to one another is viewed as the absolute gold standard of friendship, but if you don’t ensure you’re sitting next to each other soon, you can write that friendship off, pal.