Generationology/decadeology and autism
Apr 7, 2023 5:38:18 GMT 10
Post by rainbow on Apr 7, 2023 5:38:18 GMT 10
Since April is autism awareness month, I have been searching more about autism online. I have a nephew who is on the spectrum, so I feel like it is especially important to keep an open-mind and hear from the experiences of autistic people themselves.
As I've been researching autism and reading posts from autistic people on their experiences, one thing I have noticed is that a very common sign of being on the spectrum is having what is called a "special interest." This is different from a "normal" interest in that when autistic people have a special interest, they typically tend to obsess extremely over it. They will sometimes obsess so much, that they will memorize a lot of small facts.
However, as I was reading more about the symptoms and signs of autism, one sign that really stood out to me was "a strong interest/obsession with numbers and letters." Well, guess what topics involve a lot of numbers? Generationology and decadeology.
Now I own the r/decadeology subreddit on Reddit, so of course I do have an interest in discussing decades to an extent. I mean, I was literally on inthe00s for a good year or two. I also posted on r/generationology during the second half of 2020 until I eventually quit in December 2020, because the topic was getting extremely old and repetitive, and the same topics were posted over and over again with nothing new. The last time I posted anything on there at all was about three months ago. Before three months ago, my last post was from late 2020.
In 2022, I decided to revisit the r/generationology sub to see what has changed. Not only did it barely change (if at all), but I still saw about 50% of the same users I remember seeing when I last left in December 2020. There are some people that have been on that sub for literal years.
But when you learn about the signs of autism and put them together, it does make sense. Generationology and decadeology tend to be a "special interest" and they both involve a heavy use of organizing numbers. It makes perfect sense why these two topics would be a special interest of autistic people. But what really confirmed this viewpoint for me was this poll. Now obviously, this poll doesn't feature the entire subreddit, but it does at least feature the active users of that subreddit. Around 37% of the people who answered the poll are on the spectrum. That's disproportionately high for a sub with only around 4.8k members.
Now in no way am I saying that if you are interested in these topics that you are autistic. Nor am I saying that there is anything wrong with autism at all. I'm not on the spectrum, but I still enjoy discussing decadeology. I'm just not extremely obsessed with it. It's not an intense interest of mine. Same with generationology.
Please don't take this thread the wrong way, but I did want to discuss it because I feel like it might explain the nature of these two subs, and why you often see the same people on them. And I feel like we should be more open to discussing autism and not putting stigma on it.
As I've been researching autism and reading posts from autistic people on their experiences, one thing I have noticed is that a very common sign of being on the spectrum is having what is called a "special interest." This is different from a "normal" interest in that when autistic people have a special interest, they typically tend to obsess extremely over it. They will sometimes obsess so much, that they will memorize a lot of small facts.
However, as I was reading more about the symptoms and signs of autism, one sign that really stood out to me was "a strong interest/obsession with numbers and letters." Well, guess what topics involve a lot of numbers? Generationology and decadeology.
Now I own the r/decadeology subreddit on Reddit, so of course I do have an interest in discussing decades to an extent. I mean, I was literally on inthe00s for a good year or two. I also posted on r/generationology during the second half of 2020 until I eventually quit in December 2020, because the topic was getting extremely old and repetitive, and the same topics were posted over and over again with nothing new. The last time I posted anything on there at all was about three months ago. Before three months ago, my last post was from late 2020.
In 2022, I decided to revisit the r/generationology sub to see what has changed. Not only did it barely change (if at all), but I still saw about 50% of the same users I remember seeing when I last left in December 2020. There are some people that have been on that sub for literal years.
But when you learn about the signs of autism and put them together, it does make sense. Generationology and decadeology tend to be a "special interest" and they both involve a heavy use of organizing numbers. It makes perfect sense why these two topics would be a special interest of autistic people. But what really confirmed this viewpoint for me was this poll. Now obviously, this poll doesn't feature the entire subreddit, but it does at least feature the active users of that subreddit. Around 37% of the people who answered the poll are on the spectrum. That's disproportionately high for a sub with only around 4.8k members.
Now in no way am I saying that if you are interested in these topics that you are autistic. Nor am I saying that there is anything wrong with autism at all. I'm not on the spectrum, but I still enjoy discussing decadeology. I'm just not extremely obsessed with it. It's not an intense interest of mine. Same with generationology.
Please don't take this thread the wrong way, but I did want to discuss it because I feel like it might explain the nature of these two subs, and why you often see the same people on them. And I feel like we should be more open to discussing autism and not putting stigma on it.
