This is one of a series of discussion posts based on questions from the AQ-10 autism test.
5. I know how to tell if someone listening to me is getting bored.
- Definitely Agree
- Slightly Agree
- Slightly Disagree
- Definitely Disagree
Is this statement true for you? Can you think of any examples? Is it an easy or difficult question for you to answer?
You can take the full AQ-10 test here. Note this test is intended as a quick screener, and cannot diagnose or rule out any condition on its own.
Easy. Was I talking? If yes, they’re probably bored.
But more seriously, one real way to tell is whether they are asking questions. Part of my job is being a presenter and if there are no questions, they arent listening. I still forget and dont notice, though.
So, do you go on too much about some niche topic that nobody else cares about? That stereotype really does not fit for me. My conversational style is to stay mostly quiet, try to look attentive, and daydream about the actually interesting things we could be talking about instead.
Can I actually spot boredom in real life conversations tho? You know, I think I can. And pretty often I’ll be observing a typical NT conversation, and one of them will be visibly bored out of their mind, and the other will be completely oblivious. Could it be that the trait here is not being bad at spotting boredom, but being aware that you have that difficulty?
I’m going Slightly Agree
These days I mostly notice it quickly enough (and have realized that most of my nerding out about some topic close to my heart is boring to most people or sounds like a rambling random rant to them) but
it took me all the 40-some years of my life to figure it out. Other people apparently get the rule book of Normal BehaviourTM handed to them at birth.
lol, no.
If I’ve been talking for more than a minute I assume they’re bored. I never know how to answer this.
I can’t tell, so I just assume everyone is always bored of me all the time.
