zlacker

I suspect this appeals to two types of audiences. The first being people who play on their phones instead of watching the show. You can blame phone addiction and ADHD type behaviors for this but it feels like a slippery slope of stupidity in the face of good writing/acting as opposed to constant cartoon like action. (the wife and I do it too).

The second set of audience this would appeal to are people with autism. Sitcoms have always done this. Some people really need to be told when to laugh and what people are thinking because they have no ability to read body language, zero empathy, and cannot read the room. Once you encounter it regularly it’s mind blowing and that a significant portion of the population commonly lives with this sort of mental blindness.

>>austin+(OP)
I watch/listen to stuff when I do chores at home. If I am going to iron 30 things or knead a dough for 15 minutes, then it's nice to have some entertainment while doing it, even if I can't focus on it all the time. Not sure I fit into any of the two audiences you mention.

>>tuwtuw+q
By the downvote I suspect you find this description of inattention, or chores, offensive. How is that, the complete inability to focus and the emotional hostility you imagine about it, not a form of ADHD?

>>austin+S
Try doing chores for multiple people, hours a day, years on end, first. I’m guessing you haven’t done that, or you wouldn’t suggest that people who like having a little entertainment while doing chores have a form of ADHD.

>>austin+(OP)
As someone with autism, the second paragraph is entirely incorrect.

>>austin+S
I dunno, I like to listen to the radio when I'm driving, am I exhibiting ADHD or Autistic related behaviour?

>>Arch48+E3
I have a child with autism and coworkers with autistic children and in-laws with autism. That second paragraph was the polite and mild description.

>>austin+(OP)
A common misconception. Autistic people have emotions and empathy- perhaps more than other people. They just keep it inside. Also no Seinfeld is not funny.

>>keifer+92
What a strange interpretation of what they said.

>>Arch48+E3
Entirely?

They're using the word empathy wrong but trouble reading emotion sounds accurate enough.

>>Dylan1+t6
What interpretation did you have?

>>keifer+R6
That you're having ""ADHD"" toward the show, not that you have it by wanting a show.

>>Dylan1+a7
Well then the comment chain was clearer to you than me, because I read the last two comments as 1) a defense of watching shows while doing chores and 2) a criticism of doing that, implying that it’s a lack of focus on doing the chore

>>austin+S
I have never downvoted any comment on this site. So no, I didn't downvote you.

So you imagine that I downvoted you, and then you claim that I imagine emotional hostility and as a result diagnose me with some form of ADHD?

Wild.

>>dagesh+G4
I think that listening to radio while driving is less of an indication of autistic behavior than thinking that someone listening to the radio is exhibiting autistic behavior.

>>keifer+z7
I suspect the confusion is the concept of white noise. Some people can focus on some form media and a work/chore equally at the same such that neither is background noise. I enjoy playing music while I drive or doing dishes only because I enjoy the music. The work effort is accomplished in the same time with the same quality either way, but some people need the background noise to help focus on what would otherwise be a slow and painful effort marked by continuous interruption and slipping precision.

That is the distinction of ADHD. Self reflection, the bit about offense, is important because for the person without attention disruption there isn’t a performance difference to reflect upon, but for other people there is an issue of concern.

>>austin+Tb
I don’t think white noise has anything to do with the topic. Some people get bored doing chores and therefore watch a movie or listen to a podcast in the background.

It has nothing to do with optimizing performance of a task. Doing the laundry for your family for the 10,000th time is a chore, not a task that is optimized.

This is a pretty common thing to do, so I’m not sure why this is so confusing.

>>Yeul+N5
So, autism is a spectrum of common disorders that vary from person to person. Therefore people are not diagnosed on the basis of noted disorders but instead on their performance in a battery of common performance tests.

As for empathy, it too varies from person to person. It is possible, though unlikely, to score high in empathy and yet utterly fail all the rest of the performance criteria. One of my coworkers with autistic children may or may not have autism themselves but does demonstrate high empathy.

In my experience people with autism tend to score remarkably low in empathy with some people even having absolutely no empathy at all. That is why many people with autism seem socially weird or have trouble reading a room. For people with high empathy these observations of low empathy in others is most obvious potential indicator of autism.

While very few people score high in empathy it’s equally rare to absolutely have no empathy at all. It is such a striking disadvantage as to be a major disorder. It is severe enough that it looks like sociopathy minus an informed intent. It’s a processing void. That void is further obviated by an equally diminished introspective capability in that reading one’s self is the same skill as reading others.

Also, empathy is not in any way related the quantity of emotions people display. A person can be both selfish and highly emotional.