User:Zeebowbop/sandbox

Infodumping is when an autistc person "overshares," often somewhat compulsively, about a subject they are passionate about. the subject of an infodump tends to be what is known as a "special interest," a specific term used to refer to a [usually autistic or other neurodivergent] person's hyperfocused interest in passionately learning about or engaging with a subject. Some examples include model trains, studying or memorizing law(s), knowing a large amount of intensely detailed information about a specific animal, or a highly specific academic subject; I have an autistic friend with a highly focused special interest involving the intersectional crossover between the study of autism, dissociative mental illness, and memory, in academic journals, and the differences in attitudes and changing conclusions about such with new information, both throughout history and contemporarily. And despite how very specific that topic might seem to be, that friend creates mounds of original content almost daily, commenting and discussing with others the ideas and sources and journals they have compiled over the years. Bonus points, they find ways to work this special interest and the intense amounts of study it takes, into their college assignments, not the other way around. Often a notable sign of an infodump can be that it is being done by the person apparently without them noticing the recipient's discomfort or disinterest, or lacking the executive function at the time to stop (this type of dysfunction is the same thing that causes other ND people even with things such as depression to find it impossible or nearly so to start tasks, even important ones like starting a research paper, making a phone call, or brushing one's teeth. Some find it easier than others to continue a task once they get started, through willpower or with help, YMMV; this type of dysfunction is not something that is very well understood currently, and the concept is often misidentified as something else and/or conflated with other similar issues that commonly exist with things like autism). This is a somewhat subtler difference between just talking passionately, and infodumping- the term infodump implies a relationship between the action and the reasons behind doing it and continuing to do it, which often markedly includes the widely recognized inability of autistic people to act socially appropriately, often in part because of a difficulty interpreting others' emotions or reactions. For example: a non autistic person who recognizes the recipients' disinterest but chooses to continue to talk about their subject, maybe due to a feeling of self importance, is making a choice to disregard the conversation's negative social tone, one that they have recognized; an autistic person may be triggered to infodump by a neurodivergence related compulsion or realization in the first place, and often does not exactly "choose" in the same way to violate social boundaries by starting or continuing an infodump. Unfortunately this means an infodump is often recognizeable by the negative effect it has on others, rather than and without leaving room to recognize the focus, passion, and intelligence about the subject on the part of the autistic person.

Elaboration and some more concise definitions:

Infodump: A mass of info provided [all at once] by an autistic person, delivered from their learned knowledge (rather than being copied or read from somewhere), often amassed from them having pursued a special interest. Usually it implies that there is some level of a lack of choice or control in the infodump happening, in part due to executive dysfunction (although this may not always be the case of course; I'm sure there are those who can fully withhold their infodumps despite the compulsion to share and be excited, just as there may be autistic people who do know that infodumping is not what people want to hear at the time but do choose to do it anyway for whatever reason, but these do not seem to be how most people experience it). However infodumping in and of itself is not a negative behavior or term; neurotypical people can absolutely engage with an infodumping person happily and respectively, and joint autistic infodumps can be fun, if not somewhat overstimulating.

Executive dysfunction: A problem going from knowing a thing needs to be done, to making it actually happen, regardless of the gratification the action may offer (very many depressed, autistic, etc, people will unintentionally procrastinate even fun activities, such as starting a new TV show or video game they are genuinely excited about and do want to get into, the exact same way they will postpone something unpleasant like doing the dishes, even if they really do fully intend to do both. The difference being that a neurotypical person can pull up their bootstraps and Just Do It; often executive dysfunction prevents a person from doing this even if they are sitting there mentally screaming at themselves to stop just eating chips on the couch, they just cannot get up. It is the same level of "can't" that a paralyzed person can scream at themselves to walk all day, but it's just not going to happen.) This is often described solely as a problem starting new tasks, but can often extend to an inability to follow a task to completion, arguably from an inability to "start the next step" of getting something done even once it has been started, which can result in abandoned chores or personal projects [midway through]. It also may wax and wane, just like other mental illness symptoms, the same way a person with severe, clinical, suicidal depression may still have days that they are able to laugh and feel good for a short while. A person with executive dysfunction may have a short period of time in a day or a week that they find themselves able to control these choices, but overall the dysfunction is, to some degree, still present and consequential throughout nearly all of their life. As an additional note to executive dysfunction-- autistic people also very commonly have difficulty switching tasks, especially without warning or being given time to switch their focus comfortably. This may be an issue starting new things, an issue with stopping an activity unexpectedly, an issue with changing plans outside of an established routine or schedule, or a number of other causes, but it is a notable and extremely common autistic symptom.

Special interest: An interest of a[n autistic] person's that they are what most people might call "excessively" interested in, often showing hyperfocus towards it and holding it in apparent priority over other subjects. There may be elements of compulsive behavior to this, in regards to both learning and infodumping about it (such as the time I realized at two in the morning that I had been researching melanin in humans, for fun, for over eight hours, because with each page I read I just had to know the answer to my next question), but a special interest can equally often be something they do just choose to engage in to the great extent that they enjoy.

Comments
Was asked on 2/22/18 by Bri "what infodump means in neuro divergence," and then asked to save my reply. My answer is based primarily on my own experiences in the community, may be more about colloquial usage than being acutely scientifically accurate.

[When commented upon that I was, in fact, currently infodumping] Autism is literally my special interest and also note, I did almost all of this infodump, while it was initiated by a direct question about my special interest, without any response, or any acknowledgement of continued interest or engagement. I know that the question did want an answer, but since I know that I know this much about the topic, I was overcome with excitement to actually be helpful about something I'm passionate about, to people I care about and that I care about being interested in this subject, and to show that I don't just hyperfocus on useless silly things. All of this became a compulsion to talk until I felt that I had achieved both A, satisfying what I believe was asked of me, and B, to make myself and this strange neurofunction seem useful, and about itself, even. But since I don't know how much of it anyone actually wanted, I didn't know when to stop and I coulda kept going if I wasn't already trying to sum things up in my uniquely, unhelpfully verbose way. My infodump was a legit, one sided, compulsively in depth infodump. About infodumping.

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