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An interesting theory as to why we might be more visible now

Billy87

So I have a theory, I'm not sure whether it's true or not but this is always a good place to discuss things so I wanted to see what my fellow autists views on the topic are

NT's always say how there seem to be so many more autistic people these days. Obviously that's not true,there has always been just as many of us autists as there is now since the dawn of time. Of course, there is more awareness now too which may lead to more people getting diagnosed or self diagnosing and which is a wonderful thing.

However, I wonder if there is another reason that we are more "visible" so to speak and that is because we live in a world that expects a lot more conformity than it used to and that is so much more overstimulating to us than it used to be. 

I feel that 40 years ago being "eccentric" was more socially acceptable and so many of us may have been accepted by friends, workplaces and society as our autistic selves without them ever realising we were autistic. We would have just been thought of as eccentric. Wheras in the modern world, particularly since the invention of social media, conformity to the "norm" is considered so much more important. Behaving, thinking and talking the same as everyone else is so much more important and there is so much pressure to be socially acceptable. Maybe that's why we stand out more.

Also there is so much more pressure in the workplace which can make it harder for us to hold down jobs. For example, "performance reviews" did not exist 30-40 years ago and there was far less mesurement of staff performance and expectation to be ultra professional and achieve the same as everyone else. Jobs were much less target driven. My uncle tells me stories of the bookshops and places he worked at in the 70s and 80s and no one would get away with the things today that they did then! (Not bad things, I hasten to add, just different and less pressured)

Finally, the modern world is so much  more stimulating to us. There are bright screens staring us in the face all day, we all have smartphone pinging in our pockets constantly, encouraging us to scroll through bright and flickering images endlessly and even when we turn our TVs on we are confronted by endless options on streaming services rather than just 3 or 4 channels or perhaps a VHS or DVD of our choosing. Some of these things might help us of course and a lot of them have really helped me but am I the only one who sometimes finds it all very overstimulating to my brain? 

Of course, all of us autistic people are all different and these are only my own personal experiences and musings but I would be interested to see if anyone else has wondered similar things 

Parents

  • Well I think there’s a certain amount of merit to what you said I would like to point out that there is a far simpler and more direct explanation as to why autistic people are more visible than they used to be.

    mainstreaming of special educational needs in schools only really started in the 80s and only really took over in the 90s. And we’re still seeing this generation grow up and ramifications as they work their way through the system. Prior to mainstreaming there were lots of people who would’ve simply have been put away in a special needs school and never taught to have any aspirations which would’ve meant they probably never went on to any kind of significant mainstream employment.

    also mainstreaming required schools to have better diagnostic protocols in order to pick up disabled people in schools which meant more people with Asperger’s and high functioning autism will have been identified in their school years.

    so you have a whole generation of children who have been supported to achieve better results than they otherwise would have who now expects they will continue to receive that sort of support and special consideration in university and in employment. it’s led to a generation of people who say I am autistic and I expect to have a certain degree of flexibility considered to me because I am autistic. and of course that makes autistic people much more visible.

Reply

  • Well I think there’s a certain amount of merit to what you said I would like to point out that there is a far simpler and more direct explanation as to why autistic people are more visible than they used to be.

    mainstreaming of special educational needs in schools only really started in the 80s and only really took over in the 90s. And we’re still seeing this generation grow up and ramifications as they work their way through the system. Prior to mainstreaming there were lots of people who would’ve simply have been put away in a special needs school and never taught to have any aspirations which would’ve meant they probably never went on to any kind of significant mainstream employment.

    also mainstreaming required schools to have better diagnostic protocols in order to pick up disabled people in schools which meant more people with Asperger’s and high functioning autism will have been identified in their school years.

    so you have a whole generation of children who have been supported to achieve better results than they otherwise would have who now expects they will continue to receive that sort of support and special consideration in university and in employment. it’s led to a generation of people who say I am autistic and I expect to have a certain degree of flexibility considered to me because I am autistic. and of course that makes autistic people much more visible.

Children
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