I've learned the benefits of eye contact. I can make eye contact if I want to get something from somebody.
It's all fake though. I'm acting whenever I'm doing it.
Actually the thing that spurred me to learning more about it was when I was 19. I was talking to the person who told me about Autism, and she said I would lose out on a lot if I didn't start learning to fit in, regardless of how much I didn't want to.
She told me to try and maintain eye contact with the next person I found myself sexually attracted to.
There was a patient at work, and she was in her 50's. Sexy as hell. I made an effort to maintain eye contact, and by god it seemed to work. She was purposely resting her body up against me when I was examining her, rubbing my leg with her hand and by the end she was trying to get me to kiss her, but I wasn't prepared to do that.
The female acquaintance of mine is the only person I care to talk to outside of the internet on a regular basis.