Why I Blog
July 27, 2011
A reader named Mat had a couple of questions for me in the comment section of a recent post.
“I have been toying with the idea of a blog, to think about the things going on in my life, good and bad,” he wrote. “What has blogging brought you, what are you hoping to get from it? Do you tell people about your blog, or have your tens and tens of followers come across by accident?”
You’ll be shocked by this, but my answer got a little too long-winded for the comments section.
Awesometism wasn’t exactly born of altruism. I wanted attention and was indulging the occasional wild book deal fantasy, so I went and got myself a blog.
My original, self-serving mission hasn’t been much of a success. Awesometism gets me a little bit of attention, but the hits so far have been respectable but modest. I shamelessly whore my latest posts on facebook and twitter, and I’ve managed to lure a few people over with those mad social media skills, but they probably only account for a small percentage of my readership. Some readers find me by accident. Some readers are my mom.
I imagine that a scientific breakdown of my readership might look something like this:
15% friends who click on my links on facebook and twitter
20% Toronto Star readers who followed link over here and stuck around
20% people who googled a line from NBC’s Community that I once quoted
10% other
5% Mom and Dad
30% people who google some variance of “how to seduce an Aspie”
And I love each and every one of you. You’re not a fairy god agent, but you’ve been part of a rewarding experience none the less.
In my real life, this little sucker has proven itself a far more valuable communication tool than I could have imagined. It’s helped a lot of people to understand me in a different way. Even my mom says that she’s learned a significant amount about what’s actually happening in my head from reading it.
I’m also starting to hear from readers whom I’ve never met, who have discovered me through various means, and seem to appreciate what I’m doing here, which is really exciting.
I’ve amused some, touched others, and even infuriated a few, and I’ve appreciated all of those responses. They’ve all helped to sharpen my skills, make me reconsider how I present things and, most importantly, made me continue to write. It’s so much easier to work on a new post when you know you’re not sending it off into a complete void.
Blogging, in general, is an extremely AS-friendly form of communication. It’s basically living in your head (and most of us have probably been told that we live there at one point or another) for public consumption. I was pretty active on livejournal through my late teens and early twenties, and that experience had an extremely positive influence on both my writing and social evolution. I was able to process things at my own pace, formulate my ideas in a medium that was comfortable for me and then send them off into the world. If people commented on my posts, then I’d also get a chance to practice working through my ideas in a more dialogue-oriented, give-and-take format while still in the comfort of my own timetable and comfort zone. That early flirtation with blogging helped make me the semi-functional social caterpillar that I am today.
I also believe that blogging is valuable for the autism community as a whole. What better way to reinforce the saying “If you’ve met one person with autism, you’ve met one person with autism” than to add another voice to the different and divergent mix of people on the spectrum who are letting the world know about their unique experiences, struggles and triumphs? I truly believe that the best treatment for autism is understanding and communication, and the more that we expose each other, both on and off the spectrum, to the greater whole of the autism experience– opinions we endorse, opinions we disagree with, stories that could be ripped from our own lives and lives we couldn’t even have imagined – the more we can all learn to to find common, more comfortable ground and begin to exist with each other with a little more compassion.
And, if you’re really lucky, you could always end up with tens and tens of followers and unfulfilled book deal fantasies just like me.
July 28, 2011 at 11:10 am
Wow! When you answer a question, you don’t mess around! I hesitate to ask, but why wait for a deal, why not just write a book? What would it be about?
July 28, 2011 at 11:56 am
I’m slowly tinkering away on a couple of novels, but the irrational book deal fantasy is its own beast. Basically, I like to daydream that a fairy godagent will appear from the skies, procure me an advance to sit around in my underpants, eat bonbons and write an Asperger’s memoir (because the world doesn’t have enough of those).
August 16, 2011 at 6:16 pm
Well, I found out about this blog after it was recommended to me by my therapist (at a lovely place called the Redpath Centre- just for Aspies), so I guess that puts me in the “other category”. It’s a great blog. Really insightful.
August 16, 2011 at 10:16 pm
Redpath represent! I go there, as well.
I’m glad you’re enjoying the blog. Thanks for the kind words.
August 17, 2011 at 5:29 pm
Redpath’s great. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed the subway-related art on the walls- that was the doing of my colleague Anthony and I. Another project we’re working on is actually an anthology of essays (mostly about autism) by folks on the spectrum. We’ve both been really impressed with your blog, and were wondering if you’d like to contribute something to the book.
August 19, 2011 at 9:53 pm
I’ve only taken a passing glance at the subway art; I’ll take a closer look this week.
As for the anthology, I’d love to contribute! Send me the details at awesometism@gmail.com.
August 5, 2012 at 12:33 pm
I completely agree that knowledge is power and that the more people know about aspies and don’t see it as a curse and see it more as a gift they can appreciate us for who we are and not see a person with apergers’ as weird but see them as unique