Autism and the Nerd Supremacy

Is it true that nerds rule the world? STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Mathematics) now seems to be the preeminent platform for success.Had I only known back in Cass Technical High School where I majored in the least fashionable, least high-status department: Science! We of Science wore leather-cased T-squares (pre-electronic calculators) that hung on belt loops down to our knees, ballpoint pens and pencils and 3x5 index cards in our shirt pockets, our hair unfashionably long and unkempt, clothes and shoes that were unpressed and unpolished and un-preppy. Today, in stark comparison, we would be on our way to becoming social media stars and internet moguls.So, we were nerds before the word NERD had caché. We suffered, but under our much-held breaths we knew we had superior knowledge, eventual access to outer space, and paper-and-pencil based super skills. We knew that would get us into graduate schools, including medical school. Just wait and see, you preppy losers with your smart new loafers and chinos with the little belt-and-buckle in back and clean white t-shirts under your v-neck cashmere sweaters. Your Aryan look got you dates but our skills and knowledge would make some of us billionaires before we turned thirty.Autism, at least the bare scent of it, has new social allure. The ability to fixate, to hone down and do those 10,000 hours of single-minded work, to close off the world and stay—and stay—forever focused. All while the world is taking notice, is following on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, tumblr, FetLife—that list goes on and on. You're a TV star hero, Steven Cooper!Then there are the true, mentally legitimate autists. The psychiatric academy now recognizes an Autism Spectrum Disorder based on severity. It is viewed as an inborn genetically based variant in social communication and repetitive behavior patterns. The spectrum lists a startling number of deficit symptoms: difficulty in all aspects of social interaction; fixed, undeviating and intense singular interests, repetitive and extremely specific behaviors..

"Internet-based social media allows autists to communicate without the interference created in them by face-to-face social interaction."

.Autism appears usually be age three, sometimes with terrifying severity: loss of language, absence of eye contact, intolerance of touch, almost totally disabling. For decades this extreme form of autism was regarded as a kind of psychosis and, in collusion with the psychoanalytic precepts of the time, was thought to be caused by "refrigerator" mothers, women lacking essential maternal skills. Later a much milder form of autism was recognized (originally described by the German psychiatrist Hans Asperger, later exposed as a Nazi eugenicist). The presence of Aspys (as they now call themselves) has mushroomed in number simply because they are now identified rather than dismissed as weirdos, odd balls, or serious nerds.The internet has markedly improved the life experience of Aspys as well as others on the autism spectrum, by offering employment where their special skills can be developed and provide significant contributions to computer and internet-based industries.Internet-based social media allows autists to communicate without the interference created in them by face-to-face social interaction. Body language, gestural and facial expression cues, and even eye contact are not present to disturb or disrupt or extinguish communication by pure text. And the internet provides a forum for autists to find and form peer groups; it fosteres greater self-esteem and group advocacy.Being rather literal as an expression of their condition, that embedded trait also tends to exclude mendacity. People on the autism spectrum do not readily lie, and cannot therefore be counted on to keep secrets that depend on lying.They may suffer from a relative inability to recognize empathic awareness but they do not lack empathy. They may not feel your pain but they know that causing someone pain is wrong. Autists are ethical, just not touchy-feely. They often long for friendships and families as an abstract ideal. But it is difficult for them to initiate, maintain and respond to gestures, verbal and nonverbal, signaling friendship. But many keep trying. Social media can truly pave the way.An encounter with the dancer Philip Marin-Nielsen will demonstrate the immense strides that autists, given adequate, sometimes immense support, are capable of achieving:Of course, there are countervailing opinions that the internet, and especially social media, are causing a form of illiteracy in America's youth, that nerd-ism is diluting out empathy, a spreading focus on the objectification of others, and sifting values more toward materialism.But the reality is that social media is also providing platforms for positive engagement, for greater tolerance, for political change. The nerd in all of us has been called forth. And so be it.