No Stupid Questions

I do care about the life of my friends. I'm autistic too. I love to hear their stories. Although there are some which I do not care about. Like their kids. I don't like them, I don't want to see pictures, I couldn't care less about whatever dumb, funny or smart thing they did. And I tell them. "Hey dude, nice you have a kid but it's not for me." same goes for football or formula 1. You can talk to me about it, but I'll just be thinking about fun stuff and won't hear a thing you said.

I prefer to talk to people and hear their stories when it's something I'm interested in. It generally helps to ask about those things, stimulating them to talk about something you actually like. But sometimes people just need to vent stuff and it's good to listen, even though it doesn't really interest you. But giving them a moment for it makes them feel good. But instead of acting like you like it so they will continue to talk about it, after giving them their moment for a bit, change the subject to something you like. At least that works for me. And now my friends know what I'm interested in, and likewise, so we know what we can talk about and do so neither of us gets bored.

For instance, some like to squash. I don't. Some also like to play boardgames, like me. They don't ask me to join them for squash, but they do ask me to play a boardgame. Some of my friends talk about football but they know I hate it so they talk about world domination to me instead (/jk).

If you have no common ground with someone, I don't understand how you can be friends. Everything in the relationship you have with someone would be fake. But if there is common ground, you should focus on that and be honest about what that is for you. Friends become better friends when they know the real you and accept you for who you are. If not, they are bad friends.

I care about my friends. I care about the goals, concerns, trials, joys, and more. I listen and I dig deeper. If I don't care about they did, I questions that reveal how it made them feel.

Now that's a lot of emotional labor, but for a select few confidants, I am more than happy to that work. It bonds us and makes each other feel seen and connected.

Do you consider yourself these people's friend?
If you're completely disinterested in their milestones, that sounds more like an acquaintance.

But to your question, yes. I actually care about these things for acquaintances and random people too. There are limits to how much I care but it's not zero.

Yes, I care about all of that, and I'll ask regularly about them and what's going on.

So I'm in my mid-50s, and I've honestly only come up with genuine lasting interest in my friends' lives in the last few years.

I noticed that I'd get together with friends and they'd say "hey, how did your kid's sportsball tournament go back in July?" What struck me about it is that they cared enough to actually hear what I said, and remember it - not because they have a deep abiding interest in my kid's life, but because they cared about me and the things that were important to me.

And I wasn't repaying the care.

So I've tried to change. When people tell me stuff about their kids or vacation, I make a concerted effort to remember it and remember the significance of it, because the fact that it's important to the people I care about means that to some degree, I care about it as well.

My friend? I care. Randos? Fuck no.

I do care. It makes them happy, I want them to be happy, so transitively, yes.

For most people, yes.

For my best friend, no. The reason is that he and his wife really wanted a kid, and they got everything together and had one. He is the happiest new father I've ever seen.

My wife and I don't want kids, and have taken permanent action to make sure we don't. In part, this is because we understand the responsibility that would be carried for years. We have other things we want to do with our lives. So for someone else to have full knowledge of that responsibility and embrace it gets respect from me.

Yes, I do. Because I care about my friends. I'm eager to share in their excitement over their vacation or adventure. As far as their kids go, I don't really care about a baby, but I do care about their toddlers on up. It's really neat watching another sentient creature develop, who is based off of someone you know and love, and to see what sort of person they turn into.

for the duration of our contact i am concerned for their well being. beyond that they usually spend less time in my mind than the current rerun of grimm

Very, very, VERY few people actually care about other people's kids. And that interest only goes up slightly when they are related to the child.

Nothing wrong with you feeling that way.

As for vacations, life events, etc., I'm interested in knowing what goes on in my friend's lives... that's kind of what having a friend is about.

BUT... I'm interested in hearing about these things face to face. I couldn't care less if they're just social media spam about what they did with their spouse. That's one reason why I stopped using social media.

I AM nice, so I generally hope the people around me are having a good time, but that's not really much to think about so I'm generally thinking about anything else.

Im generally happy when good things happen to my friends. What you learn in the long run is to keep those things to your self. When we go on vacation only my close family knows. Any big steps in life are better taken alone and then celebrated after.

I like seeing my friends happy. I like talking about my cats.

I care. Sometimes it’s a bit boring but I love my friends and sometimes put a little work in to keep the connection.

Kids? Not really. But if I didn't care about stuff in their life then I don't think we're really friends.

I'm another maybe-autist. I don't care at all about babies or whatever, but a vacation might be interesting. Not if their vacation was just to a resort though.

I care about my friends, and if they want to talk about it, I'm happy to listen.

Depending on what the thing is (eg, potential new person) they can be inherently interesting too.

I find it interesting to hear about, was just talking to a somewhat stranger about his holiday today.

Yes I do care.

I don’t care about literally everything. But I do about most of it and love seeing it.

I'm also fascinated to know this

I like stories of babies if they're not complaints. Vacation I basically think of it as ideas for my next vacation where you can ask stuff like "how was public transport?" or whatever

Sometimes yes, I just do the minimal required that shows I care. But I often times do not care because I don't need the subtle reminder that their lives are going along better than mine. My life is in micromanagement hell, where I'm just biding time until I die pretty much. I barely enjoy things and whatnot. So if I were to fully celebrate milestones friends are celebrating to me it'd be like a knock against my own life.

So I don't but I also don't make it known to them out of respect. If they had to ask for the honest truth about how much I care, then it's on them for asking because I'd give them that truth.

I care that they care. I'm happy that they're happy. I'm pleased that they took the time to share with me, if even indirectly.

Yes, if friends. Unless they are repeating themselves, I'm going to be interested at least a little. Coworkers, no. I'll be polite and sympathetic but if it is not related to work I am unlikely to be interested and will try to bring the conversation back to work topics or end the conversation as soon as I can without being rude. Randos, maybe but probably not. I've met lots of interesting people and am always kind of interested in hearing about the human experience from anyone who want to share theirs, but really I think I got too old or jaded for that. I avoid interacting with random strangers if its a choice now, and am always at least a little skeptical of whatever bullshit someone I don't know has to say to me. I try not to be rude expressing my disinterest but I will be if it feels appropriate or necessary.

I think your angle is a bit reductive.

Conversations or interactions generally don't go from 0 to how-dare-you-not-care-about-my-baby instantaneously.

For example, in a cafe, order coffee, I've never met the barista before, they're not going to flop out baby photos and grill me about how much I don't care about their kidlet. They might make casual conversation, how are you, great day, bit tired, newborn up all night, oh I have a newborn too, she's been unwell, yeah ours had HFMD last week, oh that's tough, is she better now, was the fever bad, and so on and so forth. What I'm saying is, it's through the too and fro that you guage how interested someone is in the things that are important to you.

If my sister had a child then she would probably just expect me to care about her new baby because she's family and we see each other every week and the new baby is going to be part of my life for the rest of my life.

Another thing that happens is... people just get excited about things and that's ok too. I became a new father almost a year ago. To me, it's the most amazing thing that's ever happened to me. Of course I understand that it's not very amazing to anyone else, but for those first few weeks of course I was excited about it. It would be fine if I were to "overshare" with my barista, but it would also be fine if they were to tell me to keep my baby photos to myself.

I used to not care.

Now after a few years in a men’s group, I actually care.

I’m a lot happier and mentally healthy than I was before too.

I just use the golden rule: treat others the way you want to be treated. I'm autistic, diagnosed in 2016. One thing I've noticed when hanging out with other autistics: they all want to talk about their special interest, and will go on for hours unhindered, but you can try to make conversation about something they don't care about for 5 minutes and they don't even pay attention. I'm definitely guilty of this, to a degree. I think that's part of having autism. But the next time someone is telling you about something and you find you don't care, consider what it would feel like if you were discussing your special interest with someone and they just acted disinterested the whole time. Doesn't feel good, does it?

It's important to realize that in conversations, most people don't care about topics, they care about the person to whom they're speaking. When you speak to someone, you're signing up to have a conversation with them, not necessarily about something. For example, my fiancee is really into musical theatre, and I'm not. I don't understand any of the terminology, or what even goes into a stage show. But I love her, and if she wants to talk about it, you bet your ass I'm sitting and asking questions because I know I'm going to end up telling her about Black Ops II Zombies lore for like 2 hours straight later. It's not necessarily transactional, it just would be a terrible relationship if I only talked to her about my interests.

There is no social game. Well, probably to some psychopaths somewhere there is. But people ask you questions about things in your life because that is one of the ways people show interest in others. It's nothing to do with gaming the social system - they are interested in talking to you, so they give you opportunities to talk about yourself, your interests, and what you've been doing. Sure, they probably don't "care" about what they're asking about the same way you do, but they're not asking out of some cold, machine like formula that lets them climb up the social ladder - it's just how being social works.

I'll leave you with this thought: being able to listen to and understand the feelings of someone else in a situation you have no attachment to is empathy. Studies on empathy have shown that it is a skill that can be improved, not a static thing that's rationed out to you in a certain amount at birth. One good way to work on empathy is to imagine yourself as the other person. So, the next time someone's telling you about something you don't care about, you could imagine being in their shoes. You may realize that they have something worth caring about after all, and though you may not care as much as they do, you may appreciate what they have to say just a bit more.

EDIT: I've seen the double empathy problem elsewhere in this thread. I would like to point out that empathy is literally all about trying to understand someone in spite of what differences you have. So don't read that and assume there can't be allistic-autistic empathy. Read that and acknowledge that it's harder to empathize with allistics, and try to learn how anyway because that is empathy. Or don't, idk. I've found the double empathy problem to be true in my life, and I've also found that building empathy toward allistics and all the things I don't understand about them has done me a world of good and made it easier for them to empathize with me.

I do care. being part of my friends lives gives me meaning.

I don't always care about the specific thing very much, but I have learned to recognize when someone wants to share their life experience. And they've chosen to share their life experience with me. It takes a bit of extra effort, in an "Okay, what about any of this interests me, so I can ask questions from that perspective," but I'll always try to find something to say that makes the other person feel appreciated for sharing. Because it's probably not that they want me to "see what they've done" and more that they want to engage on a personal level with another human being.

It's a lot easier for me to support that engagement when I look at the interaction through that lens. I don't always get opportunities to engage like that with other people, and it's probably healthy for me to accept those opportunities when they come.

I don't get all wrapped up in imagining sharing the experience or anything like that, but it's always nice to get a factual update about the other person. And if they have something interesting to say about whatever it is, that's good too.