Do you fixate on random objects?

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The other day on my Autistic YouTube Creator channel I had uploaded a new video discussing fixation on random objects within the environment that you're in.

I had thought that I liked to have asked question since it appears to be common for individuals who are on the autism spectrum have the tendency to fixate on random objects.

Especially when spoken to, lacking eye contact, instead looking at something else.

Yes. I do that often, especially when in thought. I can stare randomly and sometimes out of focus... Or it is as if it is out of focus because I do not realize I am doing it.
I once was in trouble as I was sitting in the car in a car park waiting for my mother who was shopping and I could hear shouting so I "Zoned back in" to find a lady accusing me of staring at her, and she was the other side of the car park. I did not even know I was staring at her! I was deep in thought. I was not using my eyes... Or paying attention to my eyesight and what it was doing as I just blankly stare forwards and I don't even know I am doing it until something on the outside world moves or I hear a noise and I suddenly zone back in.
Often when I do it I am not in deep thought. I think nothing! It is like my brain has completely switched off. I only know when it comes back on line if something suddenly moves or if someone speaks etc.
It never happens when I am specifically doing anything requiring concentration ad effort. If I am doing something physical like cycling I have not had it happen, and I have cycled thousands and thousands of miles during my lifetime.

So yes. It is not something I do on purpose. If I try to do it I am not sure that I can as I will be purpously fixating and nope... I will not have zoned out if I do it on purpose. (I just tried!) HAHA!

Is it just people on the spectrum who do this? As I have not been assessed yet and I am getting impatient because I want to know if I am on the spectrum or not.

I fixate on "random" objects a lot. I don't really know what to look at 90% of the time, even when I'm not avoiding eye contact with other people. I usually just find something I can distract myself with and just zone out. lmao

I wonder how often stimming or fidgeting is mistaken for object fixation. My mom used to leave her earrings out on tables when she wasn't wearing them and I would bend the hooks without thinking about it. I had no conscious interest in them, just a subconscious desire to bend things. But if I was nonverbal I would have never been asked about it, and she would have thought I was fixated on them. Things like that could be the origin of the stereotype of severely autistic children being obsessed with individual objects. I wouldn't consider looking at other things to avoid eye contact to be a form of true fixation either. It seems to me that the idea of autistic fixation with individual objects could be a misunderstanding of autistic behavior. There are obviously autistic people who are obsessed with categories of object, such as vehicles, but that's not really the same thing.

I used to do things like that though I did not do it with earings, but it is my youngest brother who really does that. He picks at things. My Mums furniature like cupboards have the wood picked off the corners. He does it as he talks and does not realize he does it. He did not grow out of it with age. Me and my other brother were told off more so we eventually trained ourselves to stop doing it because if we didn't my Dad would tell us off. I remwmber repeatedly without thinking pushing a pen through the leather swivel armchair. My Dad told me not to and I dis not know what he was on about as it was a subconcious thing and he really had to tell me off to stop me because I did not know I was doing it... But one can eventually turn those stims to safer stims that do not harm anything. It does take a lot of mental effort to change though as one has to continually monitor ones every move for a period of time.
But if the thing you do is harmless it does not need to change.

I don't do it anymore. My mom stopped leaving them out when I was in my late teens because she didn't like them being bent. Around other people I now stick to acceptable stims like pacing and leg rocking.

Christmas trees, mountains and steins are the things I fixate on.