The Intense World of Autistic Adults: A Digital Ethnography Through Virtual Embodiment

• In Event: 508 - Section on Body and Embodiment Paper Session. Embodiment, Science, and Technology

Abstract

Based on digital ethnography, this paper attempts to approach the world of autistic adults. Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a group of complex developmental disorders characterized by impairments in communications. However, it is known that high-functioning adults with ASD are attracted to computer-mediated communication. We have turned ourselves into digitally embodied figures called “avatars,” to observe a group of adults with ASD who formed mutual support group activities in the virtual world of Second Life (SL). The results of our observations of the weekly mutual support group meetings for the past four years have yielded some suggestive findings in light of recent developments in autism research in the fields of neuro- and cognitive sciences; dubbed by brain researchers Henry and Kamila Markram as the “Intense World” theory of autism. We find, dissimilar to the conventional view that autistic people have an inherent propensity toward isolation, that these group members are clearly seeking connections with others. Contrary to the perspective that autistic people lack an ability to mirror others’ emotional distress, these individuals demonstrate empathetic reactions in SL to those who express pain in life. They discuss anxieties in predicting others’ actions, share despondency at their intense moments of sensory overload, and exchange coping mechanisms. Rather than considering their social isolations as an inherent deficiency, or “too little” emotion and interest in others, their subjective views are close to the image of a supercharged intense world with “too much” information– leading them to develop various catharses and coping mechanisms including isolation.

Authors

• Eiko Ikegami, New School for Social Research, Graduate Faculty

• Robert Proverb, The New School for Social Research