“In Real Life,Everything Feels so Different”: Autistic,Embodied Perspectives on Online Sociality

Abstract

Background:

Autistic adults often report heightened bodily vulnerability in face-to-face interactions, shaped by factors such as social expectations and sensory demands. With the increasing centrality of online communication, it is important to understand how digital environments can shape embodied experiences and social participation for different autistic people.

Methods:

This qualitative study used phenomenological interviews with 11 autistic adults living in North America and Europe. We interviewed participants, all of whom were habituated users of online spaces, in their preferred modality (text, audio, or video). Thematic analysis, informed by phenomenological attention to embodiment, identified how participants described bodily attention, agency, and connection across online and offline settings.

Results:

Participants consistently reported offline interactions requiring extensive bodily monitoring, associated with feelings of scrutiny and exhaustion. Online environments, in contrast, often afforded greater bodily ease, enabling shifts in attention away from self-monitoring toward communication. Participants emphasized novel forms of agency afforded in certain online contexts, helpful in fostering a sense of control. They furthermore described online communication as variably limiting or enriching, but frequently as supporting authentic and comfortable forms of self-expression and connection.

Discussion:

The findings suggest that online spaces can provide distinctive forms of embodied relief and inclusion for some autistic adults, challenging assumptions that in-person interaction is inherently preferable or superior for everyone. Consideration of autistic embodiment can be crucial for understanding accessible, inclusive platforms and for rethinking normative expectations of communication in both online and offline settings.

Community Brief

Why is this an important issue?

Autistic adults often face bodily risks in face-to-face social situations. They often feel they must monitor how they appear, how they speak, and how they move. This can be very stressful and damaging. At the same time, more and more autistic people are using online spaces to connect with others. This study examines how online spaces can affect bodily feelings and how these spaces can make it easier to connect with others in ways that can feel more comfortable and authentic, specifically for a group of autistic adults who are relatively experienced and comfortable users of the internet.

What was the purpose of this study?

The study asked: how do autistic people experience their own bodies and social interactions differently when they are online compared with in-person? The study hears directly from this group of autistic adults about how these spaces compare with offline social spaces, and how these differences can matter in bodily ways for the participants.

What did the researchers do?

Researchers interviewed 11 autistic adults, recruited via an online outreach. The interviews were in-depth conversations online where participants could choose how they wanted to communicate (e.g., text, audio, video). The researchers asked how participants felt in different social situations and what online spaces offered that in-person life might not.

What were the results and conclusions of the study?

Three major themes emerged:

1. 1.

Attention: In-person social situations often make participants feel self-conscious about their bodies. In some online social contexts, participants describe not feeling watched, so they could direct their attention more toward the interaction than on how they looked or moved.

2.

Agency: Online spaces allowed participants to decide when and how to interact. They could log off, mute others, or take breaks. This sense of agency or control was harder in face-to-face settings.

3.

Connection: Online spaces allowed for new forms of communication and often had their own social norms. Digital communication was not described as problem-free, but several participants said it made them feel more expressive, included, and that it provided for authentic connection.

What is new or controversial about these findings?

This study shows that online spaces can support meaningful experiences of bodily comfort and human connection for some autistic persons. It also questions the idea that in-person communication is always the best or most real for everyone.

What are potential weaknesses in the study?

The study included only 11 participants. The participants were all relatively comfortable and experienced users of the internet. The study did not include perspectives from outside of North America and Europe. The study relied on interviews, which often involve less shared control between the researcher and those being interviewed. The results of the study and its scope should be considered within these contexts.

How will these findings help autistic adults now or in the future?

This research highlights ways online spaces might be taken seriously when planning support for some autistic people. Online spaces allow for social flexibility, options to step back, and different ways to express feelings all of which might, for some autistic internet users, serve as important sources for connection and well-being. For policymakers and service providers, this suggests that, for some, digital platforms can be both powerful tools for bodily respite and social inclusion, but also that these tools can pose their own bodily risks. The study encourages listening to autistic voices when creating and providing access to social spaces, both offline and online.