"Acquired Autism Spectrum Disorder"

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This is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation ... and_trends

Discuss.

Meh. More of the myth that people on the Internet aren't real people. (What are we then, robots?)

The people that stay on their computers all day are the people that would be staying in their rooms doing something else alone all day.

Having internet on your cellphone in your pocket is just another way to communicate.

Let's try dropping these kids out in the woods in the middle of Montana and force them to live in a cabin out there with their parents, cut off from technology, for a year. THEN the difference between what amounts to a cultural difference and an actual ASD would become readily evident.

I wish I could remember it more clearly, but I heard once that on a wall somewhere in Rome with ancient writing on it that says, "the youth today are corrupt and spend all their time doing the wrong things -- the world is doomed!" (or something like that)

The only kernel of truth that article did have, that I feel compelled to point out, is the fact that there IS a difference between those of us who are just old enough to remember the way the world was before cell phones and the Internet, and those who remember it little other way. I can see the difference between my cousin and me, even though she's only 4 years younger than me. I'm not that old, but I seem like a Luddite in comparison...very insistent on having only certain functions on my cell phone and only texting in cases where I know it'll be the best way to get the attention of some of my text-addicted co-workers, insisting on CDs rather than downloads, and books rather than eBooks. I'm still pretty Internet-savvy/addicted, though.

I also think that a lot of the books I read when I was little in the 80s/early 90s simply will not be relatable to any kids I might have in the future, and that I was of the last generation that would get a lot of them.

Like Chick Soup for the teenage soul?

I agree with whoever said that ppl who spend all their time alone on the computer would be spending their time alone doing something else. I say this as someone old enough to have been a teenager pre-internet, and having spent a lot of time in my room reading and writing and doing other things alone.

~Kate

Ferdinand posted (in part):...Generation Z members are described...Psychologists are claiming an "acquired Attention Deficit Disorder" or "acquired Autistic Spectrum Disorder" since their dependency on technology is high and attention span is much lower...as opposed to previous generations who read books and other printed material, along with watching live television...- from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generation ... and_trends - Discuss. - ABI - http://health.groups.yahoo.com/group/ABINews2U/ - http://www.sportsconcussions.org/ - It might be better to focus on what is known as classic ADHD or classic Autistic Spectrum Disorder which existed prior to high technology, the internet, Google, the ipod, and President Barack Obama's White House Blackberry. Of course tennis elbow never existed as an official diagnosis prior to the invention of the tennis racket and Wimbledon. Really it's got to be the fluoride in the water for sure behind all this acquired high technology/internet stuff. (satire)

Since when did people on the autistic spectrum have a short attention span?

I think the problem is that people think that because People On the Internet™ are not always what or who they say they are that it necessarily follows that People On the Internet™ are not real people.

I am in my mid-50s, so I was nearly 30 before I touched a "micro-computer" (Apple 2e). All I wanted to do in my spare time as a teenager was read books and work on my special interests like Old English (got a grammar of Old English for Christmas when I was 14) - oh, and fantasise about girls, who I was too shy to actually touch. I only bought my first mobile phone in late 2008, and still make about 1 phone call a month, if that.

So I lived more than half my life without a computer. But I have never lived without books.

I'm actually thinking more of books like the Ramona Quimby books. I'm not sure how a modern kid would relate to those, set back in the 1950s and early 60s. Other books might suffer from this as well, especially sci-fi, where a lot of predictions may seem laughable in light of JUST how fast technology has advanced.

Because obviously, people in real life never misrepresent themselves.

They just made a movie called BEEZUS AND RAMONA. Maybe that'll revive an interest in those books in today's generation (kind of like HARRIET THE SPY, although that movie was not at all faithful to the book, IMO).

Interesting idea, but I agree that people who would socialize IRL will do so in the presence or absence of such technology, and that those who wouldn't, wouldn't.

However, I was reminded of something one of my professors told us: how his 14-year-old daughter had her bf break up with her via text message. (Unless, of course, this was a long-distance relationship....)

"Acquired ASD?" No, that's a misnomer, unless technology leads to the neurological differences that exist in people on the spectrum. Maybe many, MANY generations down the line, but now? Don't think so.

People do change their behaviors with the advent of new technology and societal changes, but that's very different from acquiring a neurological condition.