Anyone else really bothered by TikTok ASD portrayals?

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Are TikTok portrayals of ASD/ADHD damaging?
Yes 33%  33%  [ 7 ]
No 10%  10%  [ 2 ]
Maybe 19%  19%  [ 4 ]
I dont know 24%  24%  [ 5 ]
Can you repeat the question 14%  14%  [ 3 ]
Total votes : 21

jamie0.0
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

Joined: 29 Sep 2023
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Posts: 359
Location: melbourne, australia

20 Feb 2024, 11:08 pm

I'm un bothered by it.
I don't have too many autism videos pop up on my feed, but the ones that do seem pretty harmless.
As to the ones that try and diagnose other people. Common sense dictates not to trust the medical advice of someone who hasn't gone through medical school. So defacto they are all invalidated. But it could lead someone to seek a propper diagnosis which could be good.

In short, Awareness is good but don't accept medical advice from unqualified strangers.



What_in_the_what_now
Raven
Raven

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Joined: 25 Jan 2024
Gender: Female
Posts: 105

02 Mar 2024, 7:16 am

seeking an official diagnosis is a method of having difference outside the normal variance of people acknowledged as a significant and enduring part of who you are that requires varying levels of support. A majority of these portrayals are so over generalised it eradicates voices in place of a group think narrative.

People are self diagnosing with "lived experience" of being themselves under horoscope type descriptions and I find it quite aggravating.

Pink haired person with a quirky jumper (coupled with lots of contradictory "signs" of autism):

Top 3 signs you may have "AuDHD" (genetic links are miniscule, Russell Barkley indirectly exposed this)

1) You find it hard to stop playing your favourite video game and end up missing sleep.

2) You find getting up in the morning hard and your neurotypical colleagues are wide awake

3) After a long day at school or work you feel like you just want to be alone



Fireblossom
Veteran
Veteran

Joined: 18 Jan 2017
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Posts: 3,569

02 Mar 2024, 7:58 am

I don't know. I've never used tiktok, so I don't know what kind of content it has about autism.



Niacin
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker
Yellow-bellied Woodpecker

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Joined: 29 Feb 2024
Age: 27
Gender: Male
Posts: 55

03 Mar 2024, 10:45 am

"TikTok? You mean the song by Kesha?"

Never used it so I'm not sure what is on there but I will use some YouTube shorts I've seen about autism as reference.

The absolute worst case, but still realistic, scenario with social media videos is practitioners making professional-looking videos in bad faith filled with half-truths and wildly inaccurate stereotypes that every watcher who hasn't already spent hours learning about the field falls for.
We already have a thriving example of this happening with Narcissistic Personality Disorder.

If this were to happen with Autism I would be sorely bothered.

What doesn't bother me is girls self-diagnosing and making 1 minute long clips appealing to other girls labeled "5 signs you're on the spectrum" inholding errors. These clips are short, not made in bad faith, and made by non-professionals, thus having smaller-lasting impact, likely containing fewer errors, causing less damage to autistic standing, and more likely to be taken with a grain of salt.

However, interpreting the increase self- and actual- diagnoses as a trend is slightly damaging as it leads towards the trivialization of autistic struggles to a degree. I'd care if older NT (mostly men) in power positions such as employers and politicians started treating autism like a fad, as something fake. A decent number of people already do claim ADHD isn't real because of its (supposed) overdiagnosis in the US. Luckily most older people do not use Tik Tok but with Gen Z getting older, Tik Tok is and will be playing a role in shifting the overall public perception of autism, for better or worse.

In short, if you do use Tik Tok, you should consider making videos about autism.