"digital autism"

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Yes this term is insulting ..........and inaccurate.

People also do the same with the words starve and neglect. Like a parent may say during an argument online with other mommies "What do you expect me to do? Neglect my children just because you think this drama is more important?" I know they mean ignore their kids like not feed them, not help them with their homework, not spend time with them or take them to their game or practice, etc. But it does feel like you are neglecting your children when you don't put them first. But unfortunately that can backfire if you use that word during an argument to get your point across. It happened to me on another forum. Or a parent may say her kids got neglected while she was sick in bed but I know she means she could not do much so her kids had to like fend for themselves and the older kids had to do more work and cook meals for their little siblings and themselves and serve her food in bed until she got better. But it's just a feeling they are expressing so it be more accurate if they said instead "I felt like I was neglecting my children."

I have also seen pregnant women say they will not starve their baby when I know they mean they will not eat less food just because their doctor told them they needed to stop gaining weight or just because people are judging them for how much weight they are putting on.

I have also seen people do the same with the words depressed. When they are unhappy or having a bad day or in a bad mood, they say they are depressed.

People also do the same with the words abuse. Anything parents do they don't agree with, they call it child abuse or neglect. They even call it bad parenting too.

People even do the same with the words bully and troll. I also find those annoying too.

I know how I feel about it, and it's not good.
I honestly take insult to people refering their absent mindedness due to a choice to use a digital device when they shouldn't, as a kind of "autism". It's absolutely absurd! That's like saying someone has "digital OCD" because they text regularly.
It cheapens the meaning of ASD's and makes everyone who has it look like they actually have a choice as to whether or not they have problems!
What's next?! Someone gets pulled over because of texting and they make the excuse of "digital autism"?
It's people who come up with stupid crap like that, that gives people with REAL PROBLEMS a bad name, and I find that to be very offensive!
If they have to have an excuse for their stupidity, give it a new name instead of bad mouthing those of us who DON'T have a choice as to whether or not we have an ASD.

To OP: Thank you for bringing this topic up, it's a good topic for discussion. Hats off to you.

Now, I'm going to make a rant video lol.

The likelihood of this being the case is extremely low. Even if it is the case, the person deciding whether to use it should be sufficiently aware of modern context to find a different term with less baggage.

This title doesn't really make sense either way; if they are using the word "autism" literally, as in, the Greek definition of "autos" which means "focused on oneself" then it is stupid because it is inherently impossible to be focused entirely on oneself and entirely on one's cell phone at the same time. If however they are using it in the diagnostic sense, then there are a huge number of diagnostic criteria more important than "oblivious to one's surroundings" that they are missing that would make absolutely no sense when attributed to the excessive, exclusive attention people pay to their cell phones. Basically, the title "Digital Autism" is just silly, they should call it something like "Digital Obsession" or "Digital Hyperfocus" or something.

I agree, they need to call it what it is, instead of trying to say it's something else.

(to StarTrekker: I'm a trekker myself, I've always liked voyager the best, awesome quotes as well *thumbs up*)

oh but that would get rid of the inherent emotinal trigger of mentioning autism, which i suspect was the entire point behind using that name in the first place, not some objective want of actually wanting to describe what happens as accurately as possible.

yes this is said with direct contempt,

lol I don't know, it seems funny that it would be to ruffle some feathers here and there. But if someone was trying to see reactions, I suppose that would make sense.

I just see it as, I already have trouble with what people think of me personally due to their misconceptions about ASD's, and something like what is on the poster (pic) wouldn't help (in fact it would likely make it worse).

Some people have food sensitivities.
Last time I had lemonade my brain went to sleep.
White bread is my crack.

Wow, that's offensive.

It isn't. I highly doubt NTs know the origin of the word.

They like to clean, they're called OCD.
They have a bit of energy, they have ADHD.
They can multitask, they have bipolar.

They generalise these things all the time.

What I don't like about it it the inaccuracy. It's just zoning out or hyper focus - and not proper hyper focus. Hyper focus only occurs in ADHD and is a super duper amount of focus that is impossible to break. I'd have to scream and throw my phone across the room just to break.
I've actually been struggling with it for a bout an hour now. And last night it was more like 6 hours. I've gone for 9 hours hyper focusing on just one thing. It was almost manic. I've got to be careful when I eat fish. It triggers that intense hyper focus.
It's stimulation seeking because your brain is thinking 10,000 thoughts a second and needs to focus on something. NTs just want to talk to people.

They obviously don't know much about autism. I don't know about others but I'm so easily distracted it's impossible for me to be immersed into cellphone use. Which autistic people love talking on the phone anyway? I'm still in the dark ages when it comes to phone. My phone is over 6 years old, not "smart" and I mostly leave it on a shelf. There are only two people in the world who knows my phone number so I almost never get any calls. I use it about once a week to call others When it comes to landline I still use a corded phone with no complex function or voicemail option. It's the NT people who seem to consider any moment not talking wasted.

No. The Greek word "autos" (0 self) is older, but the word "autism" (original "Autismus") was coined 1911 by the Swiss psychiartrist Egon Bleuler to describe the basic symptoms of schizophrenia.

i dont think it is meant to actually ruffle feathers in the strictest sense,
i think of it more like an emotional paint applied to a concept to sway or encourage a certain perspective, often unknowingly, the authors have already conceptualized the image and their emotional view of it carries over.

i also dont think that it is meant to paint any one single emotion or concept, more like the mish mash of general knowledge it is based on.

Using it to describe a symptom of schizophrenia is older than it being used to describe the modern disorder. Autistic was also used in a colloquial way in the vane of the origin definition of autism.

Yeah but it doesn't make it any less insensitive to people who actually struggle with obsessive compulsive disorder.