Does your autism make it hard to relate to your generation?

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I recently watched a video on Millennial nostalgia from youtuber Tiffanyferg. She mentioned how gen z kids feel envious for Millennial hipster culture in the early-mid 2010s. As someone who was in my mid-late teens during that time and being a person of color. I couldn't relate to the hipster trend despite technically being a Millennial.

The Millennial things I connect with is mostly with the cartoons and anime I watched as a kid. My teen and adult years feel more gen z specifically early gen z (1997-2000 borns).

I had a smartphone in high school but I also had a dumb phone in middle school. I was there when Facebook was cool, but halfway through high school I remember Facebook being considered uncool for young people. I didn't really get into social media until I got to college so I missed out on quite a bit.

As far as politics goes, I was raised democrat, but grew to be more center right. I know my generation is supposed to be liberal, but when I started hanging out with more white conservative Christian. I started to see how I aligned more with the right despite having my fair share of issues with right-wing politics as well. (Trying not to be too poltical).

Current events that was supposed to shape me didn't really. I was only 5 when 9/11 happen, 12 when the recession hit, 9 when Katrina hit, and 15 when occupy Wall Street happened. I didn't nesscarly grew up in an optimistic time and was told how challenging my 20s were going to be back in middle school. The Millennial optimism never really apply to me, never mind the Autism factor.

Socially my friend group is a good mix of Millennials and Gen Z. I hang with more Gen z these days but I have a buddy that's a decade older than me whose a Millennial and also on the spectrum. He's very pro Democrat on a lot of things but he's also grew up in a conservative Christian home. We like things that people our age would deem childish i.e stuffed animals, pbs, and other educational shows.


I say all that to say. Do you feel you relate to a lot of generational stereotypes?

I do relate to people from my own generation

Yes

-ish.

I lived through most of the 80's through the eyes of a young child and remember the 80's

At age 4, I watched the Challenger explode and did not know what was going on until my parents explained it. Meanwhile, Regan was president for the first 7 years of my life. Back in those days, Michael Jackson was all the rage and I remember singing his music with other friends who lived in the neighborhood when I was 6. Then during the late 80's, my dad took me to The Little Mermaid when I was 8. During those days, no one had cell phones, rather, everyone had landlines. All the while, computers were DOS, which the text was green.

Then during the rest of my pre-teen and teen years, we had dinosaur dial up. I remember my dad buying a computer for Christmas before hand and playing with internet. This was where I would keep hearing numbers dialing. When I asked my dad, it was "I don't know what that is." Additionally, Home Alone hit theaters around that time.

However, I will have to share more later

As a Generation X (which I've mentioned being about 87400 times), I do have nostalgic feelings for things I grew up with like My Little Pony, Care Bears, Cabbage Patch Kids, and Garfield comics. But it also kind of annoys me when people go on as if we Gen Xers are superior because we grew up with smartphones or internet and didn't wear helmets riding a bike. That last thing isn't such a big deal because I never learned to ride a two-wheel bike, even though I tried many times and got a lot of crap a lot by my brother who could ride one.

Also I have many if not most of the fears younger people have about the present and future. But I've had that since the 1990s.

I also had dreams about becoming a professional cartoonist or even an animator when I was young. But I had no idea how different the world would be when I got older, and I wasn't diagnosed and had no idea I was on the spectrum, so how could I anyway? I can't even drive a car. And I'm not even sure I'm really that good at drawing, even though I do it all by hand. Or because of it.

my 2 cents:
yes autism makes it harder to relate, not only to your generation, but in general.

I don't know is being autistic has anything to do with being able to relate to my current generation. However, I have noticed that people have been very short and inconsiderate of you.

I'm not sure.

I cannot relate well to my generation.
But it's little to do with just being autistic.

And very much more to do with my lack of FOMO and social drive.

No matter how much my interests (or even special interests) aligns with my generation, it's like I have this very different take or prioritization.

Even my own nostalgia is different.
To many, it's a particular set of childhood media and widespread phenomenon related to either economy or sociopolitical situations of that time.

To me, it's too individualized to count.



Like...

I relate well to the medium that everyone my age uses.
But not the contents or their reasoning of why it's nostalgic for many. Like fandoms, trends and old lessons.

Kinda like that.

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I can relate to these of the stereotypes of my generation: generation X
-We're tech savvy but not tech dependent
-We're independent (as a lot of us grew up with 2 working parents and came home to an empty home after school)
-We like to learn new skills due to independent upbringing and having to be self reliant
-We have a cynical streak, due to economic and geopolitical tumult

I am so glad that I was born in this time, mainly because my generation is the last one before technology exploded.
We played outside until dark and our parents had no idea where we were until we got home. We used our imagination when playing games. We didn't have fomo. We didn't have this 24/7 pressure of social media.
But the main reason I'm so glad that I was born in '72 is that I've seen hundreds of amazing bands in the late 80s and throughout the 90s. It was a fantastic time for alternative music!

I am 52 but my friends' ages are in the range from 33 to 60. I feel more at ease with people who are 10-15 years younger than me. They are more playful, generally speaking. Although the 60 year old friend definitely is too!

During my assessment the lady asked me about my friends' age range and she explained that people with autism often feel more drawn to people younger than themselves.

I've always struggled to relate to others much less the youth. There certainly isn't a lack of overlapping values, references, etc, but being an odd melting pot from many generations makes narrowing things difficult.

It isn't impossible to relate to others on an individual level. It may occur more slowly, but it isn't too difficult to piece together shared interest and the like. In some ways, the slow methodical building of relations with others helps some in forging more meaningful friendships and the like.

I tend to be too naive in social life, and everything becomes great when I meet those who suspected Asperger

In high school, a classmate loved to recite poems downstairs in the dormitory, and a classmate loved Japanese animation. They obviously have social problems, like me.Being among them makes me ignore my social problems.

I find it hard to relate to a lot of people, but I think in the past especially to my age group, so yes.

Sort answer: YES!

Long answer:

I have never related to people my own age. I have always been attracted to older people, many of my friends are the same age as my parents or older. I have been told that I have mature interests, not very many people in their 20's are interested in political activisim, history, philosophy, or just plain old thinking.

Also, I think most people under the age of 35 or even 40 are shallow, entitled, and stupid. Which is the main reason why don't hang out with young people, and more Importantly why I don't have a girlfriend. It is hard to meet young women when everyone you know and converse with are 50+, unless someone sets you up with their daughter or granddaughter hahaha.

I'm hoping that as I get older it will become easier to make friends closer to my own age. I'm on the precipice of my 30's, so we see if my prediction is correct.