Facebook is an entire virtual world in which people halfway around the earth can connect and chat and share enough information about each other that they are practically next to one another. The concept of a profile page in which the contents of a person’s life are neatly organized into a few thousand pixels is a genius social innovation. So how can it be that Mark Zuckerberg, the man behind the empire, is less social that a probable 98% of the users of his website?
My answer is that Facebook could only ever be a product of somebody with social impairments such as Asperger’s Syndrome (Though Zuckerberg has not been formally diagnosed with AS, his social deficiencies and obsessive behaviors make it a likely label). In order to create a product in any field, one must study as much as possible about the field in order to manufacture a successful item. To make a successful social network, the inventor must have studied social behaviors and nuances extensively. Researching the social field in-depth would take years before enough information has been gathered to produce a website which encorporates as many aspects of a person’s social life as possible.
Luckily, Mark Zuckerberg had been studying social behaviors for years before he would even learn any computer coding. This was thanks to Asperger’s Syndrome, which caused him to have to consciously study people in order to maintain a functional lifestyle of healthy relationships and positive social interactions. Think of the novel Frankenstein, in which the monster must learn to speak and interact with people from the bottom up.
By learning about social nuances in this manner, Zuckerberg was already prepared to create Facebook when he thought of the idea. If the inventor had thought of the idea before engaging in research, technology would have advanced so quickly that his idea would have been smouldered and failed. This is a situation in which it is advantageous to have Asperger’s Syndrome. I credit the creation of Facebook to this disorder and the fact that it helps people like me and Mark Zuckerberg to know more about people than people do.
The Artistic Spectrum 