An Autistic’s Love of Knowledge and Her Smartphone

I just need to know things. My brain insists, that if I hear a word or an idea or a fact, then I must immediately research it. I need to know the answer…ASAP.

For my sixth birthday, my parents bought me a complete set of Funk and Wagnells encyclopedias because I asked questions about everything and they were exhausted trying to answer them all. Those encyclopedias were my most treasured possessions. When I needed to find an answer, I turned to my encyclopedias.

Obviously this was back in the Stone Age, because I am old and I didn’t grow up with the internet…but knowledge was EVERYTHING to me. Especially as a child who didn’t yet know she was autistic, but did realize she was different…in ways that made others uncomfortable.

Knowledge is still everything to me. Over four decades later, I still have my encyclopedias. They take up a lot of space on my many mismatched bookshelves. They only leave their shelves if I’m feeling nostalgic. The smartphone has taken their place. It has all the information found in my encyclopedias, and then some, but it’s convenient and portable. As an autistic person, the incredible wealth of privilege that exists in knowing that the answers to so many of my questions are waiting to be discovered in one place is, well, extraordinary to me. Having easy access to all of this knowledge often feels otherworldly.

I will admit, it took me longer than I care to admit for me to invest in a smartphone. I am not good with change and I felt safe and comfortable with my ordinary mobile phone without the bells and whistles. I initially purchased a smartphone because my eyesight is poor and I wanted to keep reading books without my strong reading glasses. With the smartphone I am able to enlarge the font on the books I acquire, so the process of reading is a lot easier. I discovered all of its other informational uses shortly afterwards.

It’s especially useful while watching television and movies. If I am watching an episode of the TV show “Van der Valk” (one of my favorite shows) and the character Job mentions “Baruch Spinoza,” I can open a search engine and find out who that is… before the TV show tells me. And if I’m wondering how tall Nikola Tesla was — FYI, 6’2”- I don’t have to wait until I can get to the library, like I was forced to back in the olden days, to find out.

I know I can’t be the only person on the spectrum who has realized just how fulfilling being able to find the answers to most of your questions almost immediately can be. Maybe it’s a universal feeling? I’ll have to ask some of the neurotypical people I know…

Information can come in many forms and so much of it can be accessed with a simple search using a smartphone. At first, I used my smartphone for absolutely everything, even if I didn’t need to. I’ve found balance more recently, reading actual physical books that I own-even though this requires reading glasses-instead of purchasing the same book for on my phone. I’ve also started visiting my library again…not because I have to, but because I want to. I missed it.

I am definitely still an enthusiastic smartphone convert. I will never tire of how much information I have easy access to. It has made interactions with the people around me-friends and strangers alike- a lot less difficult and anxiety inducing. It has always been difficult for me to possibly already possess the knowledge and information to contribute in social situations, but just not know how to adequately do it successfully. If I can easily call up the same information on my smartphone that those around me can, operating on somewhat of a more equal level feels possible.