I have a little brother that is on the spectrum and he is obsessed with meme culture and memes to the point that he cares about nothing else. He can’t talk about anything else and always tries to say memes without context and understanding hoping to make us laugh. I would not have a problem with this unless it was not the only thing that came out of his mouth. I am worried about his future. He won’t be able to live with just memes. He maybe sometimes plays minecraft and that is the only creative thing he does. He is great but he will do some pretty upsurd stuff like, he will avoid his friends just because they bought a memed soft drink. He hates talking unless it is memes. He doesn’t like questions. He hates thinking. What do I do? I literally can’t connect with him. Once I will give him a piece of advice, like, “maybe find a better time to say the jokes so that they land better” and “please try not thinking about memes all the time” and he will say yes and proceed to ignore whatever I said.

  • BOMBSM
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    61 year ago

    I think his preferred method of communication is through memes. He might find it validating. Perhaps, you can try talking to him via memes too.

    I know I love memes, and I send them to my friends even if they don’t send me any. What I’m saying when I send one is (1) this is something that I relate to, (2) this made me think of you and that’s good because it means you’re important to me (penguin pebble), (3) I like sharing things that make me happy with you because I want you to be happy, and (4) I feel safe being open about this with you. If he’s anything like me, he has a secret stash of memes he’s holding onto until he feels safe and connected enough to someone to share them.