Autism used as a jokes

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Two boys walk down C-hall. As they approach the end of the hallway, they see a girl playing Roblox on her computer.

One boy turns to the other and says, “That’s autism.”

“I usually joke about autism with a couple of my friends because we all think it’s funny,” said Paul Jackson*. “We don’t actually mean that a person is autistic or that something is autism. It’s just a joke so we continue to joke about it.”

Many autism jokes are posted on Instagram. Like other social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook, Instagram uses hashtags to make it easier to find a post related to a topic.

There are about 7 million posts on Instagram tagged with the hashtag “#autism,” with more being posted every minute. However, most of these posts aren’t related to autism at all.

“I sometimes post things on Instagram that look stupid or odd and call it autistic because I think it’s funny. It’s a lot easier to joke about autism on social media because I’m protected by my phone screen. More people may be able to see that I joke about autism since it’s out on the internet now, but I don’t have to face them in person, which makes me feel more secure,” Jackson said.

Whether it’s over social media or in real life, jokes about autism are viewed as disrespectful by many. However, people like Jackson often don’t know about the harm they’re causing others.

“I’m quite surprised because I didn’t know that my jokes were heard by so many people besides my friends,” said Jackson. “But after finding out that other people hear them– both in person and over social media– and that I’ve hurt and harmed others, I regret joking about it so much.”

Posts like this are commonly found on twitter
I just got a #flushot today and I just want to make sure I'm not getting autism. Is soreness in your left arm a symptom?

Putin said that Americans are autistic and fat b/c they sit all day behind their computers; I agree with him on that

Hazard has had a better year than Neymar. If you disagree you have autism

I can really believe that the FCC is so autistic and ret*d that they will pass it. I swear if congress agrees, the internet apocalypse will be upon. Have fun everyone, have fun.