Is staying off Facebook an Aspie thing?

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I joined Facebook when I was 17, purely due to peer pressure. I got into the swing of it though and did get addicted to it. Eventually, when I was 25, I deleted my account for several reasons. I feel happier and less anxious now that I'm off it, and have no intention of going back.

I now realise that I didn't really want to be there in the first place; I only did it to please my friends and family.

Anyone else feel the same?

I don't think it has anything to do with being an Aspie.

I am using fb to contact my friend, check messages about tram/bus delays and kill the time sometimes.
I am not addicted or anything. Nor I am planning to stop using it. It's a tool.

My friend on the other hand is clearly an NT and I her college classmates forced her to make a profile co they could contact her (I was begging her to get even just a fake a profile for a few years before that, she kept refusing).
She is using fb less than I do.

And my other friend (he says he is an NT and I sort of agree but he has some traits) recently deleted his account. We stay in contact using some other communicator - Whatsapp - one that my NT friend is refusing to use, as stubbornly as she did with the fb.
He did use fb a lot - and found some options that pissed him off.

And my another NT friend is using fb like crazy.

I use Facebook to play games that I can't find anywhere else on the Internet. I also use it to keep in touch with friends and family.

Never joined Fakebook and never will, for reasons too many to go into here.

I'm not on Facebook.

I'd suspect that, for the most part, Facebook probably has a somewhat lower usage rate among Aspies than among NTs. It's probably not being on the spectrum makes one averse to Facebook, but rather having less social interaction in real life results in less stuff to share (eg. photoes from a social event) and also fewer people to share them with. Thus, a likely somewhat lower usage rate.

There are people who are philosophically opposed to Facebook and this rate may also be somewhat higher among Aspies simply due to higher technical interest, but I suspect that this would have less of an effect than the social reasons.

Nonetheless, I think most likely the majority of both Aspies and NTs are on Facebook.

My wife is absolutely addicted to Facebook (she's NT). I never use it and cannot see the point of it. I also suspect there is a lower uptake of social media apps generally amongst our community. I don't think we are attracted to chattering mindlessly in any forum, real or virtual.

I only have a Facebook to look at memes.

I used to use Facebook a lot, but not anymore. I find forums and sites like Tumblr more appealing: you can really get to know the people more, and the conversations tend to be more interesting. Plus, reading about things happening in my town and to people I know has the potential to be stressful, for reasons I won't go into.

The main issue with Facebook for me is how invasive the site really is. Constant push notifications, etc. I just didn't like that.

I'm quite fine with social media itself though, I've gotten very expressive over the years.

I planned my life around exploring listservs, moving to a remote location with a good connection. Then Facebook came in, and all the good discussions went away. I tried to participate through Facebook, and as far as I can tell, nothing I ever wrote there got posted. I couldn't figure out the social rules, and didn't want to call a new acquaintance a "friend." I won't join any new social media group that is not open-source and co-op owned. I want to know what program I'm working within, not just guess. So ya, it's an Aspie thing.

I don’t like Facebook either because it feels invasive and I think it’s an unnecessary way of socialising. I do like instant messaging though however, as it’s a nice way of keeping in touch with people directly and I prefer it over phone calls. Now that you can use the messenger component of Facebook without having to have a news feed and profile it suits me great It felt quite liberating to deactive my profile as I don’t miss out on socialising any more than I used to and I find the time I used to waste scrolling through the news feed can be put to better use.

I noticed just before I deactived my profile that people on my friends list don’t post to facebook as much as they used to, and are mostly only active on messenger too.

When it comes to invasion of privacy or fear of someone seeing what you post, I personally just make all my content only accessible to friends (actual friends and not just random followers on Facebook & Twitter). Unless you have friends who will turn their back on you and gossip but that can happen even offline. You can also use a fake name for yourself on Facebook, although it may be tricky with using names that are not "real names" (because Facebook doesn't care about people who don't want to have their real name used on a social media site...). I actually got banned a few times in the past from using a different alias. Oh well. And with phone number verification when it comes to Twitter, just use a fake number.

There are ways to go about doing things like this on social networking platforms without feeling like everyone knows your business. I also use Twitter as a way to keep up to date with any new video games and content that sparks my interest.

Not really. But it's certainly a thing for those who likes their privacy better. And aspies tend to like their own spaces more than an NT would have.

As for myself, this is also why I like my secrets. But I like my net life when my means of internet access isn't very limited.
Facebook is just another tool, just another communication channel for me that I happened not to pay much attention to.



However, there are a few things I'd wish about it:
One, I wish my main profile is more of a fake account. I never posted any portrait of myself. Yet, anyone else won't do the same. So this leads to:
Two, I wish tagging requires permission all the time. If permission isn't granted, at least it won't link into the profile, it won't posts on your wall, AND it won't notify your friend list.

So yes, it's a bit invasive.

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