Report from the Comments
Early in May there was a post in praise of the variety, the persistence, & the wonder that is the Fanfiction Writer.
In a comment - now removed - a commenter voiced their problem with reading the original post due to the lapslock, no punctuation, run-on texting-thought-salad style that some bloggers enjoy or see as inherient to certain platforms' culture.
The commenter ended by asking what kind of neurodivergent Hell was this?
A number of people took that as a shot to neurodivergency and responded with sarcasm, ridicule, & "ackshually" shots.
None of them looked past their own snark to see:
The Commenter was neurodivergent and finds the no capitalization / no punctuation / run-on style difficult to comprehend. That's reasonable. And - depending upon their feed - they may not have run into this minimalist style.
My response:
I started a conversation with this commenter. They were interested in the OP topic but couldn't parse the non-standard style. I get that.
Information presentation can be a barrier - especially to those of us with non-typical executive function. Also - it's social media where we all speak in a kind of emerging short hand founded in texting culture.
Unfortunately before we'd gotten into those weeds, the original comment was getting negative traction & there was bitching by other commenters. [I mean - even MY response ☝️ illicited a 'skooling' on stream of consciousness history because I observed that the style was "a trend" to which someone took exception.]
So - in short -
Tumblr has one less account today as the group of pro- neurodivergence keyboard warriors chased a neurodivergent person off the platform. And I'm a bit sad about that because - why?
The inability to empathize with someone saying:
I cannot read this.
My executive function cannot handle this.
The hurts to read.
Are all valid statements of frustration. Our language brains are taught - not innate - we learn the patterns of communication & some brains are more rigid than others. Instead of offering grace & empathy to one it purportedly supports this community chose Trolling - and now there is one less voice here today.
It's a small thing. It's probably only a "me" thing. But here we are.
Seek first to understand before seeking to be understood. ~ S.Covey
Also - to the lovely being with whom I exchanged discourse on stream of consciousness et.al. - the minimalist post is absolutely a trend. It is bleeding over onto multiple platforms & being discussed as a viable form signaling age & social group. This trend looks a lot like SoC & IM but the root stock is different. The root is most often texting (with it's myriad of social signaling rules) rather than an artistic choice. And here, on Tumblr, it's a fitting-into a niche within the larger platform culture.
And - it so happens - that for a particular segment of folk, that style is not optimal as a form of communication.
