Obsessive interests now and odd play as a child.

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My husband says we're out of Soy Milk (my daughter has a milk allergy)
Suddenly I'm wondering what ARE soy anyway? And then I get the compulsive urge to Google.

According to my husband he can tell when I want to Google something because I get a different look on my face. I look happier, giddy, and driven. I have the need to stop WHATEVER I'm doing and Google what I need to know. If we're out when this happens, I won't be able to concentrate on anything until I can get home and look it up.

Then it seems I get lost in the information. Of course I share my news of what Soy beans really are with my husband. How they're grown, harvested, packed, what they're in, what color they are, average prices, etc.. And then it leads to another wiki link, and another... and before I know it, I've been on the internet lost in pages about soybeans for the entire day... And the worst thing is, I'm aggravated when anyone pulls me away. I NEED to look up soybeans and glean everything I can from this RIGHT NOW.

Then it seems as suddenly as it was important, it no longer is. I have this new knowledge and now I can let it go.

Something quickly replaces it. One day it might be posting here on WrongPlanet, even though I'd been gone for nearly two months without even bothering to check here. Or refreshing my Gmail button every minute. But it just as easily could be Googling the death penalty, or pedophiles, or researching past relatives, neighbors, or Googling random things and then again.. become obsessed with finding THE answer to whatever is floating in my head.

Does anyone else experience the internet this way? Or experience this very super intense interest? Sometimes it lasts for days or weeks, these obsessions. Other times, like in the case of soybeans.. it was over in two days- replaced by something else. I do have long term interests as well but those are less concerning to me.

Is information/knowledge seeking an Aspie trait? The thought of Googling something makes me literally giddy.

I seem to take it to another level as well. Like, I get SO caught up in something and learning about it.. that I want to adopt it and make it part of my life. So for 4 weeks my family went vegan. Until... you guessed it, I wasn't interested anymore. At one point I was obsessed with planting a garden out back, and then after months of obsessing about it... the desire was just gone. So it not just internet things, its real life things as well.

I can trace that back to childhood. I was the one that came up with crafty ideas. Like, we made a whole town out of cardstock and my cousins and I drew in roads and houses, etc. Then I wanted another town next to it, so we did more. And then more. And then more. Until we had L.A., Pasadena, Alhambra, and an airport. (Yes, I had to make sure the towns were connected appropriately and named as they were on the map) It took a few weeks for this matchbox car project to finish. My cousins SO wanted to play! But.. I had no desire to play with it. You know those toy commericals? The ones where they show Barbie in different scenes, or cars and trucks outside "driving" through the water and roads. I LOVE the backgrounds. The set up. The SCENE. That makes me just as giddy as researching something. The thought of SETTING UP makes me soooo happy! Playing with it? Meh. No thanks.

Anyone relate to any of this?

I compulsively google everything too, and even my AS boyfriend calls me a "know it all." I need to sit down with him and explain to him that he doesn't have to compete with my knowledge, but just listen to me.

I used to line my dolls up in boxes and play "apartment building." Then, I would go around and collect the rent. That was the extent of my play. I went through all my books and made "library cards" for them so that my dolls could check out books.

Yes, I do this too. Before the internet, I researched via libraries.

I recommend you get a iPhone so you can Google things while your out and about

I think this is a very cool trait, curiosity and thirst for information can only be a good thing

Yes! I relate to much of what you say about fact finding. I just which I could retain everything I ever got briefly obsessed over! but unless they become long term obsessions I loose the information - it doesn't matter if all I did was look for facts on a particular subject for hours on end with no break, unfortunately it wont be committed to long term memory and I forget which is unfortunate! Then what is funny when the subject comes around some months later and I realize I no longer have the info and I must get obsessed with it again!

I made library cards too! I even tried to make a stamp thingy so that I could "stamp" each book on the card with the date and time it was due back. LOL

I also played school with my cousins. (I lived with them so they were like my only siblings, and I didn't have friends. They were also a lot younger than I was. The closest in age is 5 years younger than me.) I would happily make up "packets" of work. I'd hand write math problems, even writing out the directions and a line for your name. I'd do this for every subject and then they'd do them. Of course they'd want me to ring the bell for recess and pretend other things that I wasn't interested in.

A very common thing heard in our house was, "Are you almost done YET?? I wanna play!" While I kept setting up and "preparing" for play. Only to lose interest in the play aspect of it.

Yes!! This frustrates me as well! It would be great if the information was long term. I find that occasionally bits and pieces are remembered, but not nearly as much as I learn! It makes me a bit upset to know that I've used so much time out of my life researching, but never remembering all I've learned. Yet it happens again and again.

Is fact finding a cool trait if one never really remembers the facts in the long term?

I can sometimes find a topic on the internet that interests me for a while and I may spend some time searching/researching on that, but then it may quickly change into another interest.

Same here. I call them mini-obsessions.

i wiki a lot, but the most pointless obsessive stuff i do, is almost embarassing to talk about

yes, this coming from the guy who posted about smelling my own poopy fingers.

no really.. when bored, often late at night, ill get on Excel, and start to invent new countries, historical eras, and endless fictional statistics for each country. when i got a huge database of fictional countries and their fictional histories, i delete it and start over the next night

I can totally relate to all of this. I didn't used to think much of it, but a good 95% of my time is spent obsessively focusing on a rotation of interests and research.

For instance, when I got back into drawing a couple years ago, I also decided to start looking into oil and acrylic painting, and reading forums and resource sites like crazy, reading up on art history, just completely obsessed with the stuff. Before I even bought a single tube of paint, I made a HUGE spreadsheet where I listed pigment color index codes, but only those with acceptable lightfastness ratings, then the names and a small color example from all of the brands I considered reputable and used acceptable oil mediums...it was just nuts. Eventually, that spreadsheet became tedious to edit and revise, and I just suddenly stopped. The funny thing is, I know that painting will come around again on the rotation eventually, and I'll probably start yet another spreadsheet. It's almost like I search for the ultimate way to organize data, and if I don't find a way that really works correctly in my mind, I stop and move on to something else.

I can definitely relate to this - intense obsessions coming and going. Like you, I have literally had an obsession last only a day or so. An idea enters my head, it trips something, and suddenly I can't stop thinking about it... for a while. Then it just goes away, and I can't understand why I was so obsessed with it.

If it comes on very abruptly, it's likely to go away in a short time as well. More long-term obsessions I usually get into gradually, then they slowly start taking up more and more of my thoughts.

I also often find obsessions mutate and I start becoming obsessed with anything connected to the original, real obsession. It's as if I just can't find a way to get enough of it, so I start spending time on anything that even reminds me of it.

I don't have a great urge to Google just everything, but sometimes do (usually diseases, song lyrics, or song meanings).

I'm the same way with googling. I've spent entire days doing nothing but googling different words. Or different variations of the the same words. It also ties in with one of my main obsessions, though. I just have this compulsive need to know every bit of information on my obsession, so every few days, I'm googling, among other things, to see if there is anything new.

I've typed just about anything I can think of onto Wikipedia. It drives my boyfriend nuts. He always says to me, "Stop being so OCD!" but I honestly can't help it. It's that compelling urge.

I do the same.

By listening to radio or watching tv I hear about something than I absolutely need to know more about it and understand it...

Google and Wikipedia are often my best friends ! When it's about history I just need to look into my few hundred of books...