Having Autism in this time period, better or worse?

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I sometimes wonder if it's worse having aspergers(or autism) in this generation than in years past. The reason is because in this generation, everything is built to be so socially controlling. There are people on cellphones on every single corner on every street. If you don't own a cellphone today people think there is something wrong with you. People are obsessed with social networking sites and and live on those sites and post their entire lives on them. It's like nowadays if you don't have one, you're considered an outcast.

For this generation, if you have problems in school as an example, they can come home with you with the internet access. You've must of heard of all the online bullying people have endured and how some have killed themselves over it. It's not like the old days where problems at school, stayed at school. The main difference I realize is that years ago before the technology era, people's lives weren't dominated by devices that made their lives so socially available and out in the open. In the 80's, heck the 90's, you didn't have to worry about your privacy being exposed on the internet.

Years ago, you didn't have to worry about being forced to own a cellphone and having to text and talk to people for 15 hours a day. I know that this post might sound like it's bad mouthing socializing and I'm sure for some people, being able to be socially available so easily is a joy but for some people it's got to be frustrating. I just feel that today it's gone a bit too far. I'm the type of guy who likes living in privacy and doing my own business. I find having to call people and joining social networking sites to be really frustrating and time consuming which I refuse to do either. If I don't call people enough times, I'm accused on not liking them. I like them fine, I'd rather talk to them maybe once a week. In the old days, it was hard to contact people. You could only talk to them at home. At least back in those days, if you didn't call it meant you were busy or out. Now people can track you anywhere like a tracking device.

So my main question is do people today with aspergers(or autism) enjoy being in this generation where their lives are so easily socially accessible with a click of a button or do you long for the older days where people could live with less pressure and more privacy without having to worry about having their lives exposed so easily?

I don't think that it's any better r worse with the technology. God puts us where he puts us. I'm happy to be alive in the world, no matter what year it is, and how much technology is out there. The only reason that I have with the 21st Century is Autism Speaks and what they're trying to do with their money. Other than that, I think that this time is a good of a time for me to be alive as any time in modern history. I live my life like it's 1965 with the added benefits of the Internet anyways, so does it really make that much of a difference to me? Not really.

i think modern life is worse for aspies...
but that's my opinion.

my reasoning is people used to keep to themselves a lot more in the past then they do now. families were more likely to live together well into adulthood and that was normal. (i think this is the case?........) todays life pretty much everyone is put into this public maze of forced interaction that as we develop makes us aspies more insecure, confused, and less succesful. However I do not think the public school system is good for anyone let alone aspies, it does not prepare students for the future at all. (In the united states...) In the past people would learn trades from their families which i think aspies could become good at because their good at repetitive stuff often. Also they might come to understand how things work better then most and find new ways of doing things or improvements to what ever skill they have learned. I don't believe this is as possible these days.

So since us aspies are less skilled these days (except for maybe in the technology field which is a place we will always fit in) they cannot overcome their social handicaps as well by doing the things we might have done in the past like become super good mechanics, architects, artists, or what ever your skill might have been in the past.

(Sorry...my answer was more to specifically aspergers and not autism.....the more severe autistic spectrum illness's probably faired a lot worse in the past)

I'm honestly not sure how there can be much debate about this. Up until relatively recently, no one even knew what autism was, and people with it were put in insane asylums, which were often horrible places even for people who actually were 'insane.' Even during the last century, one of the prime ways that 'experts' recommended that parents or guardians of autistic people take care of those who were severe enough to be considered 'autistic' (the labels of AS and PDD hadn't even been invented yet, so anyone with those issues was screwed, too) was by institutionalizing them.
Autism services today are far from perfect, but as crappy as it is to have these needs in most modern societies, it was infinitely worse 'back then.' All this talk about privacy and individualism is basically BS. There never was a time when people, especially people on the spectrum, were masters of their own fates, it's just that it used to be they only had their families or private institutions or charities (some of whom had their own agendas) to help them (and as for people who had no family and couldn't afford a private facility, they were SOL). Most of the people who yammer about big government and the nanny state don't have a clue what they're talking about, and most of those who do would be fine with government interference so long as it's a republican/conservative friend to corporations-run government doing it.

I think the old days were better for the few of us who were lucky enough to "fit in" without any special assistance. We would do great in school and get jobs as engineers, scientists, or some other highly skilled profession that would allow us to use our talents with relatively minimal social interaction.

But, the sad reality is that most Aspies couldn't do that.

I would put a poll option for "I think it's safer to be autistic in this time period". The world was a much more dangerous place for us autistics back then (I am glad I wasn't a part of it).

Yes,in the old days we might have been mistaken for witches.

I think that you missed a few very important factors. It's definitely better today more people are aware of ASD, true, but there are accommodations made for you as well. You, also, can do a lot of your communication with out talking to people directly. When I was growing up the doctors that saw me didn't even know that Asperger's existed. I was diagnosed with ADHD and put on Ritalin. It was devastating. I had all of these problems and didn't know why. The drugs just took my creativity away and made me depressed. You have it so much better of today. You can get all kinds of assistance and people understand your problem. Be glad you live in this world and not mine. I wasn't given much of a chance and ended up in a job that is way below my capabilities. You have opportunities that I will only be able to wish for.

I'd say better, and not because of technology which allows social connections to become easier. There are actually services for autistic people now that there's more public awareness of the condition...and with increased awareness, services will hopefully become more extensive.