Do you pretend not to notice others?

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Sometimes when I see someone, if they don't notice me, I won't say hi. because I get nervous But if they do, I say hi, but it can be a bit awkward.

I do it all the time. I hate going to town and while I'm there I dread someone seeing me to the extent that I go at times when I figure no one would really be around and shops no teenager tends to go :/. Unless I'm really good friends with them.
Admittedly though, most people who see me just laugh at me when they see me in town so I figure it's not like they WANT to talk to me anyway.
I do it all the time with people though, if they say something and I'm not sure it's addressed at me I ignore them to avoid embarrassment- even if there's only me and them in the room... I know that's pathetic but I figure they could say something like, 'I wasn't talking to you, stop being so deluded' or something even though it's very improbable... Once my Science teacher was trying to talk to me but I ignored him because all he was saying was, 'Hey, you' several times and then when he said, 'Stop ignoring me, I'm talking to you' I eventually turned around seeing as I couldn't really hear anyone else walking, nor see, only for him to compliment me -.-.
But yeah, the risk of embarrassment is too strong... even though sometimes it seems I'm f*cked either way, don't respond-look rude, respond-look stupid. Avoiding gives me some hope that I actually managed to not look rude nor stupid, and if they see me, there's still a chance that they fell for me not seeing them.
EMZ=]

Yup, all the time. I find that if I see someone I know in public, we both don't say anything to each other and it's so awkward. Pretending not to notice anyone is always the best and most safest way to go; that way they can't accuse you of snubbing them. I find that if I wear an ipod in public, it completely shields me from any social interaction and it makes me one hundred percent conversation proof free.

I've done this in the past. I don't think this is a strictly aspie thing. Sometimes I just don't want to stop and rehash everything that I've done with the person. It's not that I don't like them or am embarrassed. Sometimes I just want to be on my way. Sometimes I'd love to run into an old friend. Some people I would duck from. I don't know why exactly I'd duck from some people and not others. I'd duck from ex's the most. It is too awkward to run into someone who was very close to me at one point and now we are just acquaintances. It feels too weird.

When I come across people that I don't wish to see, I usually just reverse course and head in the opposite direction. But I think that because I normally don't look at faces, they are the ones who usually do the noticing.

No, it's dishonest. If I do see someone and I think I know that person but afraid of bothering them because what if it isn't them, I leave them alone. It's not pretending I didn't recognize them. I was just shy.

I do this all the time too. After a couple of years of very uncomfortable small talk with parents at my daughter's elementary school, I started to pick up my daughter by walking past the playground and waiting for her by the classroom door. I'm pretty sure some people think I am rude now. But I just felt so weird, standing there with nothing to say. Or worse yet, watching others talking up a storm It reminded me too much of when I was in school.

I just ignore people I don't know.
I have no problem talking to people, but not much interest in doing it.

Yup.. so you err on the side of "caution" by figuring they weren't talking to you. I don't think that that's so much ignoring them as it is just going with the assumption that it wouldn't really make sense for it to be you that they're talking to.



It's possible to ignore someone because you're shy, though.
And sometimes the ignoring or pretending not to recognize more comes from the other person. Like, if someone who was mean to me in the past comes up and talks to me, I'll get a really confused look trying to figure out how the heck I'm supposed to interact with this person. If they take that as me not recognizing them, how am I supposed to explain what's really going on in my head? I ALREADY didn't know what to say to them, and I was ALREADY confused, I just wasn't confused about what they thought I was confused about. So if I can't help being confused and I can't help not knowing what I'm supposed to say to them.. They wouldn't believe me even if I tried to explain that I did recognize them.