Infodumping is the tendency to share an excessive amount of information about a specific topic, while going into great detail.^[1] Infodumping is a form of communication by someone who is neurodivergent, and often specifically someone who has been diagnosed with autism or ADHD. Although infodumping is often represented negatively in media, infodumping can play a positive role as a sign of comfort, vulnerability, or trust.

Importance

Infodumping is important as a form of communication for neurodivergent individuals. It allows neurodivergent individuals to "open up" to allistic (non-autistic) or neurotypical (non-neurodivergent) individuals, and often indicates comfort, trust or the ability to be vulnerable through the sharing of interests.^[2] Infodumping sometimes results in the interests of neurodivergent individuals being labeled as a “special interest", a problematic phrase which associates neurodivergence with the word “special” and its offensive tone.^[3]

Engaging with infodumping

Neurodivergent individuals may mistake / miss non-verbal and paraverbal signals indicating the lack of interest in the topic being infodumped.^[4] This could give someone who is neurodivergent a hard time to opening up and communicating, because of the fear of being a bother towards someone. It's important to figure out if someone's infodumping by showing self-awareness about the length of time on a certain before moving on to another topic.

References