I’m probably just once again using my weblog to think things through, but I was just watching BBC Breakfast news. They had an item on the possible banning of social media for under 16s. Now, I’m very much on the fence on that issue as I can definitely see advantages and disadvantages to such a ban; but during the item, one academic stated that there was a link between the use of social media and ’emotional regulation’. That really caught my ear: we know that people with autism have trouble regulating their emotions, and it’s one of the defining features of the condition. Could there be some kind of connection between social media use and the dramatic rise in ASD we’re currently seeing?

I’m pretty certain I won’t be the first person to wonder about such a link. I’m just thinking openly here, before doing any googling or research (yes yes Dad). But you have to wonder what such a connection could mean, how it might be objectively established, how we might explore the way social media use effects how we interact with society, and what if anything could be done about it.

Interestingly, later in the Breakfast programme, they also had an item about a man with severe autism, and the techniques being used to cut his hair. He had what I’d recognise as autism from my school days, was non-verbal and clearly couldn’t really interact with the world as others do. To be honest I think there is still a real, clear distinction between this manifestation of autism and the one now being ascribed to so many more young people. They may be on the same vague spectrum, but I don’t see how they could relate. The boy with autism had apparently been diagnosed ten years ago, when he was very young; yet these social media-using kids will be in their teens and will still be highly capable of interacting with other people on some level. This situation is obviously very complicated and certainly worth looking into.