Why Beautiful Landscapes Get Ignored but Every Selfie Gets Likes: A Neurotypical Mystery

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Last update 14 May 2025
Reading time 4 mins

The Strange Economics of Online Attention

Have you ever uploaded a breathtaking photo of a mountain lake, a wild animal in perfect lighting, or an exquisitely composed landscape - only to get a trickle of likes? Meanwhile, someone else posts a blurry photo of themselves with a slightly forced smile in their bedroom, and it blows up with dozens or hundreds of reactions.

For many people on the autism spectrum, this behavior seems (validly) absurd. Why is objective beauty, technical skill, and emotional resonance with nature so invisible to most people? And why does every image containing a human - regardless of quality or context - seem to be rewarded just for existing?

In the following short article we are trying to shed some light on this illogical behaviour by “neurotypical” people who seem to neglect reality over social fairytales. They are usually not even aware of this but many would be able to actually learn about their illogical behaviour and adapt.

Neurotypical Brains Are Social Signal Processors
For Autistic Minds, Meaning Comes From Detail and Beauty
What It Looks Like in Practice
What Can You Do?
Final Thought

Neurotypical individuals tend to have highly tuned social cognition inside their own sphere - don’t take this wrong: They exclude and remove everyone who is not behaving “correct” in their own view, they are not social in the inclusive or tolerant sense. Their brains prioritize faces with typical expressions, typical superficial social connections, and conforming identity signaling over abstract aesthetics or deep content. This isn’t a conscious preference - it’s deeply embedded in visual and emotional processing:

Well known facial expressions grab attention more than any other visual stimulus as long as they conform to expected norms. The fusiform face area in the brain is specialized for recognizing specific human face patterns.
A selfie - even a bad one as long as it conforms to social norms - often triggers recognition, memory, and emotional resonance. It’s a social cue more than a visual stimulus.
The “like” is not a reward for artistic value. It says: “I see you, I remember you, I support you.”. This is a privilege for all those who are correctly conforming to their norms, expectations and narrative.

In contrast, an image of a beautiful fox, while aesthetically stunning, is not socially relevant in the same way to them. It may evoke admiration or curiosity, but it doesn’t plug into the neurotypical system of social signaling and belonging.

For Autistic Minds, Meaning Comes From Detail and Beauty

People on the spectrum often process images in terms of pattern, contrast, mood, structure and deep content. Emotional engagement may be triggered by:

Precision or natural elegance (like the symmetry of a leaf or the glow of a sunset)
Storytelling through environment (a distant lighthouse, a crumbling ruin)
Animals and nonhuman beings that seem to express personality or evoke a connection

But these values are not rewarded on social networks that are built around neurotypical signaling. For someone autistic, the entire social interaction model of platforms like Instagram or Facebook can feel - validly - shallow, illogical, or deeply alienating though it being one of the major ways of interacting with others due to social load and exhaustion.

What It Looks Like in Practice

Let’s say you upload:

A detailed photo of a wild fox looking straight into the camera. Sharp focus. Perfect light. Few likes.
A photo of a clear glacial lake reflecting snow-capped peaks. Technically flawless. Still few likes.
A blurry photo of a person’s face with a caption like “Me, lol.”

That third one might get dozens of likes. Why? Because it anchors people in social relevance, not because it’s objectively good.

What Can You Do?

If you’re on the spectrum, this phenomenon might make you feel invisible or misunderstood. And the harsh truth is that this is the case - neurotypicals would suggest it helps to remember:

You’re not broken for caring about beauty, structure, or mood.
They’re not evil for liking human-centered content - they’re just weirdly and illogicaly wired that way.
Social networks aren’t meritocracies of meaning. They’re popularity contests fueled by recognition loops.

Consider sharing your work in communities that do value content over superficial social cues (special interest forums, art critique groups, scientific or nature photography boards). But don’t expect much positive resonance with neurotypical groups

Final Thought

The world of social media is a mirror for how the majority “sees” or pretends to see. And that mirror is often warped for those with autistic perception. But that doesn’t make your way of seeing less real, in fact people on the spectrum usually see more, deeper detail and meaning. It makes it rarer - and perhaps more necessary. But unfortunately invisible to the majority.