Autism, Einstein & Facebook

According to PubMed Health, the number of diagnosed cases of autism is increasing substantially. For instance, “a child who is diagnosed with high-functioning autism today may have been thought to simply be odd or strange 30 years ago.” With this in mind, might we consider the possibility that autism is not a matter of having or not having the condition, but rather looking at the condition as existing over a continuum, from which none of us is exempt? That is to say, might we all, to some degree, be affected by the socially impairing condition known as autism? It would explain the recent boom in diagnosed cases, especially as we are, as a society, less willing to consider a child simply “odd or strange,” but instead feel more comfortable applying a medical explanation for this unusual behavior. An exceptional case of autism going undiagnosed (although this is widely debated) is that of the physicist and Nobel laureate Albert Einstein, who purportedly threw tantrums and preferred solitude. Both of these behaviors are listed in the PubMed Health article as symptoms of autism.

            Furthermore, it seems plausible that there may be a correlation between increased cases of autism and the observable decrease in direct, face-to-face, human-to-human (not to stress the point to much) communication. With the explosion of the technological industry, the human interactions upon which society once relied solely have been slowly replaced by more modern electronic means. Granted, the population that is most affected by this technological usurpation of our most basic human exchanges is well advanced beyond the age PubMed Health suggest we are susceptible to developing autism (first 3 years). Rather it may be the reverse, that is, a broader portion of the population having the condition would likely encourage the establishment of an alternate form of social communication. Is this utter speculation? Absolutely. Is there not, though, an uncanny sense that all of our new contraptions for avoiding human contact have an especially apparent use to those who have autism?