Asperger Syndrome and Facebook

Many people have been wondering if social networking sites such as Facebook helps or hurts young adolescents with Asperger's. The answer is both because we tend to have awkward social skills and Facebook can help us observe the social world. Also, it hurts us because we can become highly addicted to it and people can make jokes about us via Facebook or have ulterior motives. Unfortunately, we cannot distinguish between who is being genuinely nice and who is trying to make a joke because we are often so unsuspecting and people tend to take advantage of that. I had a Facebook account. Things seemed to be going pretty well when I first created it and then, the longer I was an active member, the more I felt the need to check it. First, it was once a month, then once a week, then daily, then hourly, then minutely, and then it got to the point where I would literally feel empty or regretful if I just went five minutes without checking it. Also, it got to a point where I created a bashing page for one of my teachers. I did not know how serious of an issue Facebook was for me until it started to consume and influence the person who I once was. More specifically, I was thinking that my 600+ friends on Facebook dictated how popular or unpopular I was, I thought that these people were my friends in real life (but a lot of them are just mere acquaintances), and there were issues with people being openly mean and disrespectful to me via Facebook (i.e. sending inappropriate and derogatory messages to me, people writing mean stuff on my wall, and people would post mean and irrelevant comments on some of my status updates). I finally decided that just simply quitting the cold turkey Facebook was one of the toughest, but also, the best decisions I have ever made when it came to the internet because I clearly wasn't using it for its intended purpose, but instead, it was my drug (metaphorically speaking). It was basically like a drug because when our house went nearly a whole, entire week without internet access, I began to feel empty and also began to search for new ways to access Facebook (i.e. using my brother's iphone). I think it is time for me to face my demon when it comes to Facebook.

Thanks followers,
Kristian Thomas