Today is November 1st, which is supposed to be "Communication Shutdown Day." People are encouraged to abstain from going on Facebook and Twitter and using other social media (I'm not sure if blogging is included) to support those of us who are autistic.
In my opinion, this weird initiative makes absolutely no sense. Internet has been a blessing for many autistics. People who have communication problems and people who are partly or completely non-verbal have been using the Internet to express themselves and keep in touch with others. What autistics need isn't silence. It's just the opposite: more discussion, more awareness, more truthful information. So I'm not going to abstain from either blogging or tweeting today or on any other day.
Yesterday, I went into one of my autistic fugues and lost the text of the talk I'm supposed to deliver at a conference on Friday. Now I will have to rewrite the entire thing from scratch. I can't even remember exactly what happened or why I lost it. The sequence of events escapes me completely. All I know is that it isn't there any more. For all its benefits, autism isn't all fun and games all the time. Sometimes, it makes one's life pretty difficult. However, if I were to comply with the Communication Shutdown initiative, I wouldn't even be able to share my annoyance with the loss of the presentation with my readers and receive their support. And how would that be helpful to me?
1 comment:
I have been thinking about this since you posted it. The idea is weird, isn't it?
Post a Comment