Picture from tonny huang/Unsplash

This article can also be viewed at https://medium.com/non-monetized-together/implementing-writer-jim-irions-ideas-into-nonmonetized-together-8920419d8178

Nonmonetized Together is an online community where people share their ideas to inform the actions of the community members. Jim has shared a lot of knowledge about autism with Nonmonetized Together, so I will look through his articles and see how I can implement that knowledge into the Nonmonetized Together landscape. I will then send this article to him and ask for his feedback before publishing.

“Psychology and psychiatry still have difficulty defining what autism is. As a result of this being true, autism acceptance will not happen within the foreseeable future unless we deal with these problems together at their source” – We Need Everyone.

Takeaway: Some Nonmonetized Together users may live in an area where their neurotype, disability, or mental health situation is not well understood. This means that when we interact with each other, we should make sure not to evaluate people’s responses based on societal expectations. For example, we should not act with the assumption that people are neurotypical, nor should we act with the assumption that they are neurodivergent. Instead, we should take both possibilities into consideration even when the person hasn’t (yet) disclosed their situation. In addition, we can contribute to discussions by frequently mentioning how the discussion topic relates to neurodiversity, disability, or mental health. This way, Nonmonetized Together contributors can help each other be mindful of these topics.

“Again, society needs a stark reminder that autistic people are being stripped of their humanity and identified as a set of labels. We are still being defined as high-functioning or disabled” – To Be Or Not To Be Autistic.

Takeaway: There’s nothing wrong with giving a nuanced description of yourself in your Nonmonetized Together posts. Don’t feel pressured to reduce yourself to a label for the sake of simplicity. You’ll be accepted as who you are, not your label.

Also, this relates to something I realized when writing my last article. Using the word “they” is very dehumanizing in situations where “someone” or “one/some/all/any of them” would be more applicable. I will try to avoid using “they” in these situations. This allows me to dramatically sharpen readers’ abilities to understand each other while being subtle enough that I won’t be attacked for being woke. However, if I’m responding to someone who is using the word “they” when other options could be better, I might I have to use the same wording to make the conversation easier to follow.

“One month later, in September, I received [the health provider’s] response [to a presentation Jim did about how to respond to autistic needs]. I was supposed to email their recruitment help services to discuss accommodations with filling out written job applications. They ignored what I presented about cross-neurotype communication issues, the inadequacies of generalized mental healthcare, and my potential to enhance autism research as a primary source. I had no choice but to stand my ground.” – Journey of Accommodation, Part 3.

Takeaway: I will always give users additional chances to explain themselves if they don’t feel like I understood them. I will be willing to accept that I misunderstood what they were trying to say. I will not give up until both of us can agree that I grasped what they were saying.

“Those who are not autistic need to accept that society is designed with your neurotype in mind. Every single day, we have to mask and blend in just to manage our mental health, maintain employment, and avoid a wide range of conflicts. Some of which end in social isolation, bullying, suicide, depression, discrimination, or death. Some of these still happen to us anyway, regardless of what we try to do to avoid them.” – The Divide That Determines Our Future, Part 8

Takeaway: Remember, when you’re using Nonmonetized Together to discuss a topic with someone, you’re not just talking with that one person. You’re having a discussion that can be seen by people all over the world. Don’t give up the conversation just because the other person doesn’t understand. Maybe someone else reading the conversation can join in and help the two of you see eye to eye. To make it obvious, you can ask, “does anybody else here understand what I’m talking about?” Even if nobody joins in, remember that other readers may benefit from your comments.

“The soothing sound of George Harrison’s song “Cloud Nine” playing over the radio. The sweet smell of marigold flowers on a summer day. The soft touch of a satin-trimmed blanket between my fingers. The mouth-watering taste of a traditional Italian Stromboli. Or the vibrant color of green I would see during springtime. While I paid closer attention to these simple and positive sensory experiences, I became more aware of myself and my feelings.” – The Gift That Keeps On Giving

Takeaway: You can enhance your articles with embedded videos. Make sure to write descriptions of the videos for people who are unable to completely experience them. You can be creative and include other multisensory enhancers in your article too. For example, you can suggest that readers experience a certain scent when reading articles. They shouldn’t be mandatory though!

Do you want to help make Nonmonetized Together a supportive community? Share your ideas by writing some responses or posts. You might see some of us start spreading your knowledge in the future, like I did with Jim’s ideas in this article!

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#Inclusivity #Writing #Autism #SocialMedia #Neurodivergence

OpenAI

Is there any point to social media if it isn’t being used to communicate productively? Maybe this is why it feels so meaningless! By learning how to write respectful and civil comments on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and Medium, you can make the most out of your online social experience.

One thing you can remember is that more people can see your online behavior than your offline behavior. This means that your social media comments have a greater impact on others. You can use this as a motivating factor. Just think about how it’s important not to waste the opportunity on squabbling and toxicity.

Second, social media moves at a slower pace than the real world, and you can use this to your advantage. You have the freedom to reread others’ comments or read them closer than you would in the physical world. You can also put lots of thought into your own comments and read them over before you’re finished. There’s no time limit.

Social media also has the benefit of being something you can return to later. If you’re at home and you see something that makes you angry, you can step away from the screen for a few minutes and let out all your energy by exercising, pacing, or doing anything you need to calm down. Then you can come back to your screen and respond to whatever it was that got you mad. Not only does this put you in a better position to make a positive contribution to an online discussion, but you’ll probably be able to release your emotions more fully through physical activity than through typing.

You may also want to begin your comment by clearly stating its purpose. This is the reason why most “serious” writing starts with an introductory paragraph. You probably don’t need a full paragraph for a social media comment (then again, you might), but why not at least have some sort of introductory sentence to communicate your intentions? It’s also helpful to make sure you know the purpose of the post you’re responding to. By avoiding miscommunication, the other person has less reason to respond aggressively.

My goal on Non-Monetized Together is to make posts that lead the comments section to exchange knowledge, honesty, support, and ideas. The tips in this article are my tools of the trade. They did an amazing job at making it easy to have a valuable online conversation. I hope they help make social media a more pleasant and enlightening experience for you.

This article was originally posted to Medium on December 20, 2022 (https://medium.com/illumination/thinking-before-you-send-a-guide-to-discipline-and-self-control-on-social-media-fbb7b7902eaf?source=friends_link&sk=deb1e35b1babfa6d549dcc7d465ed0c4).

#SocialMedia #SelfHelp #SocialSkills #SelfControl #Communication

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Image from DALL-E 2

This article was originally published to Non-Monetized Together on May 7, 2023 (https://medium.com/non-monetized-together/this-common-internet-practice-embodies-most-of-the-worst-legal-aspects-of-internet-culture-3ddd45ab6a6a?source=friends_link&sk=be8461f903c8dc0430be1ccfe48dacf9)

#SocialMedia #Censorship

Hey, it’s Kevin here again, and this post today is going to be a bit different than my usual posts, since it is in point-form.

Have you ever seen a piece of media that seems like the perfect representation of something? You know, something that perfectly conveys a time, place, or attitude.

Well, I think I came up with the thing that conveys the failures of the Internet like no other. I’m talking about when people censor screen names in screen captures of publicly available web posts.

Of course, online privacy must be respected when it comes to private, deleted, or restricted-access posts. It would be dangerous and unfair for someone to be publicly identified with something that they didn’t intend the world to see.

However, this logic goes out the window when people cover up the screen names in publicly accessible posts. Despite this, it is still commonly practiced today, and many of the method’s weaknesses also happen to be in vogue with the current Internet.

Here’s a list of them:

· Missing out on the context of posts

· Toxicity (as people have more freedom to make hurtful comments if the name is not shown)

· Forgetting the human

· No citations

· Not giving individuals a voice

· Not holding people accountable for their actions

· Logical fallacy (their name is already available on the original source. You’re not undoing that by covering it up, so it’s kind of pointless)

· Judging a group by an individual member (you can’t know the person if the name is censored but sometimes you can figure out a group that they are a part of and judge that)

· Capitalizing off someone else’s work

· Removing the context from the screenshot can help push an inaccurate narrative

And in cases where people only censor the name if the original poster is not well-known, it can reinforce inequality between levels of social status.

Next time you see an image of a publicly available post with the name censored, try to remember to not let the image encourage you to behave in the ways I just listed. You can also try searching the post in quotation marks on a search engine.

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[NASA/Unsplash]

Take a look at this discussion thread started by a librarian who has been requested a book that is so elusive that it can’t be found anywhere.

Now I can tell that this mystery isn’t going to go viral like some other examples because it wasn’t posted to a mainstream website and because it’s not a memorable example. Despite this, nine other people have replied with suggestions. The linked thread is an example of someone forming an equal power dynamic with the people who respond to them instead of trying to post something that interests a lot of people.

There are many discussions online that are just like this, where somebody posts something that will be significant to very few people but puts the respondents in a position where they can lead the discussion. However, this approach to discussion is usually limited to contexts where the initial poster is looking for help from respondents. The initial poster feels stuck solving a mystery on their own, so they make a post about it. Their mystery lacks viral qualities such as nostalgia, suspiciousness, familiarity, or strangeness, but usually other people will help them out anyways.

Compared to the discussions on the rest of the public Web, these interactions are built on a more equal relationship between initial poster and respondent. Yet they are almost always carried out in cases when the conversation starter needs help from others and so has no choice but to put commenters in a more powerful position.

If you think about Medium or Instagram or Twitter, most of the public initial posts are people doing something to grab people’s attention or to get some sort of emotional response from viewers. They are putting the spotlight on themselves. There’s nothing wrong with this, but a lot of people forget that social media can also be used to highlight the repliers’ contributions to the discussion.

I feel like Nonmonetized Together stands out from other blogs for this reason. The posts on NMT aren’t the author’s posts, they are discussions for the community. This makes the comment section become less about the initial poster (like most of social media) and more about the community (like the librarian forum).

I encourage people to expand on the information in the blog’s initial posts, place it in a new context, make tangentially related replies, and respond with a different purpose than the article (but not with a different purpose than NMT). If people respond with these comments, they will make it so the comment section is not just responding to NMT but contributing to it.

Hopefully Nonmonetized Together will help you feel less invisible.

#Discussion #OnlineDiscussion #InternetComments #SocialMedia #Internet

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