Gen Z getting Autismized

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https://m.economictimes.com/news/intern ... 528978.cms

Well, my title is kinda a tongue in cheek.

Half the people on Reddit seem to self-identify as autistic so maybe there's something to this.

I think the ‘Gen Z Stare’ is rather their way of putting people in their place, like "I'm not even going to respond to that!"

Gen Z's probably have the "Thousand Yard Stare" from all the trauma of the covid pandemic, climate change, cyberbullying, having a meglomaniac Cheeto for US president and WWIII being on the brink, but sure okay. It's really the phones manufactured by adults that are to blame for everything. They do remind the youngins of those things every half a second.

The articles also mentions the Millennial Pause. I've never heard of that before. Maybe they call it the Pixel Pause or TV Trance for us Gen X's.

What does gen Z have to look forward to? like what people don't like the facial expression they have? well I kind of think they should just get over it( the people who have a problem with the facial expressions should get over it, not the gen Z people), they are probably screwed even worse than us millennials. LIke Idk are they supposed to do back flips and summer salts and praise capitalism when it's a big part of what is making their life worse than it needs to be?

Like idk what sort of look are they supposed to have on their face, a plastered smile, when that's just not what they're feeling.

I would hazard a guess that Reddit attracts more than its share of autistic people.

Reddit is kind of a cesspool imo

The cesspool you keep coming back to, maybe you don't but I do...lol.

Does reddit has similar problems as X. I heard today that 76% of the "people" on X are bots.
Interacting with bots does that hamper your social skills perhaps

I do agree with your previous post and lostonearth. All different bad things keep piling on until its unbearable.

Didn't George W Bush in the wake of 9/11 say something similar to - we're gonna shop ourselves out of this tragedy.
It is a option to deal with the emotional horror, maybe not a healthy one. (Similar how we have dealt with the climate crisis or not dealt)

Because in 2025 the word "autism" doesn't really mean anything, it's just another kitschy identity label to put on your Tinder bio like being vegan or furry.

No, the Gen Z stare is not an "autism" symptom. Boomers and Gen-Xers need to stop calling everything they don't like "autistic", that's exactly how the word lost its meaning.

Autism used to mean the self. Now it seems to mean emotions and too much empathy for others and even normal social interaction in some cases.

It means whatever the psychologist decides it means while he's conducting your interview. I don't know if other countries (or other regions of the U.S.) are any better about this, but I've been to multiple autism quote-unquote "specialists" in the southern US, and literally they diagnose you based on vibes, if you "seem autistic" you get the diagnosis, usually within minutes of meeting the doctor. Total clown-show. Not that I'm complaining, since like... obviously I needed the diagnosis, but jeeez, they really love handing these out to everybody nowadays

Yeah I know. My brother got diagnosed with ASD a few years ago but I don't believe for a second he has ASD. He's neurodiverse but he's never seemed autistic at all, and I grew up with him with a diagnosis of my own, so I think myself and my parents would have known something was "wrong". He seemed normal as a kid, even at home when he could be himself. He mixed well in school, albeit being shy and disliking sports. But he still knew how to make friends with his peer group and was actually one of the popular kids.

Since he became an adult he seemed to develop bipolar symptoms and mental health like depression. Also I think he suffered a little bit of emotional neglect at home as a child, not on purpose or anything and not enough to be bad parents or anything, but me and my sister took up a lot of my mother's attention (me even more because of my behavioural problems), and I seemed to be my father's favourite. So I just know that it isn't autism that my brother has.

As a Gen X, I spent most of my life wondering why I was so different from others until I was diagnosed with Asperger's in 2001. But not before my whole life hit rock bottom first.

It's because Autism still lacks an "ORGANIC decisive diagnosis" - as long it remains only a psychiatric/psychologist diagnosis, its meaning will remain ...weak - just a shallow identity with no strong scientific basis; unlike other disorders that have definitive ORGANIC diagnosis (known specific mutations), such as Rett's Syndrome and Down's syndrome - no normie can claim those.

I guess it's the same with ADHD.

I mean I know it's wrong of me to think that autism in adolescence means no friends, as many people think that ADHD in childhood means a disruptive class clown, which I certainly wasn't. So I guess not all autistic people were ostracized by the peers in school either. I just wonder how they do it, that's all. But a loud ADHDer who couldn't manage to learn to sit still in class and was always in detention and never done their homework on time might wonder how I managed to sit still in class and done my homework on time and wasn't often in trouble with the teachers as I got older.

But the answer to that is that I had a supportive family around me, and I was statemented in school so had behavioural therapy. So I was taught how to sit still and my parents always made sure my homework was done on time. So having so much support can mask your symptoms. What if I hadn't of been statemented at school? Maybe I would have struggled to sit still and behave in class. Plus I was shy, and a shy girl even with ADHD isn't exactly going to jump around on the desks or do anything else that will draw attention to themselves and make them unpopular.
For some reason when I was at junior (elementary) school it was quite socially expected for girls to be shy and well-behaved, while boys had to be tough and bold and screw around. And so that is probably harder for autistic boys but easier for ADHD boys. But that's probably easier for autistic girls but harder for ADHD girls.

I think there was a boy with ADHD in my class at high school. He was very impulsive and couldn't sit still, and some teachers perceived him as naughty but he wasn't naughty, I think he just struggled. In the first couple of years of high school he seemed popular, I guess because his ADHD made him funny and goofy, which is socially acceptable for boys, and he loved football. But in the last couple of years he didn't seem as popular, as I think his peers probably grew up a bit while he was still goofy and liked getting dirty. He needed extra help in school and began making friends with other boys who also needed extra help.

My ADHD became more noticeable as I got older, which was why my peers ostracized me, as a teenage girl being silly and goofy and energetic isn't as socially acceptable as what it is for boys. I became impulsive and masked less than I used to.

I don't mask much at all now. I can't be bothered.