More people in 2023 are diagnosed with autism than in 2003, why the change?
I do not hear people face up to the fact that human beings, the animal homo spaians, that we are have changed a lot.
The Smartphone has changed society drastically. The first screen-only smartphone, Apple iPhone 1, was not introduced until June 29, 2007. I think people have not been able to see in the way of Marshall McLuhan and Rick Roderick just how much society has been altered. EVERYONE is influenced by the smartphone in 2023, it isn't just computer indusstry people like it was in 2008 when I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome.
Driving cars and riding in airplanes is not normal for human evolution, life on earth. It is still very new and our biology was not built/evolved on this earth for this.
The office workplace in industiral parks and tall buildings is unnatural. As is 9 to 5 schedule year-around, regardless of summer or winter, etc. We take these as normal when human animals were not evolved this way. We take it for granted and don't consider that it doesn't work for everyone and sensory overload social interaction problems - etc are not equal for alll people. "The Office" TV show may be funny but not fitting in and struggeling isn't a joke. I lived that lifestyle from age 18 to age 30, but even 8 years before I was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome I made a lifestyle change to working at home and visiting places like bars and coffee shops only a couple days a week. The pandemic has shown a lot of people realizing that they office work environment isn't what is best for their life.
I think lifestyle change triggers (discover of/expression of) it. Much more media consumption (including video games) in 2023 than in 1983... much more stimulation of sounds, visual, etc
I think people who lived mostly alone on a farm didn't struggle with the social as much as office work and constant Internet communications. And driving a car, I think societies where you have to drive your own car put more stress on autism, especially if it is in regular traffic vs. open roads.
And let me be clear; I am not saying that these things CAUSE autism. I'm saying that we are exposing ourselves to things that we do not know, we have become much more information / Internet driven in our lives, and we lack self-awareness that our biology wasn't made for it. We just assume that since some people thrive in this Information / Internet driven world that everyone should.
Needs editing.