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New Zelda Content™
I’m going to say something that can easily be interpreted in bad faith, but I’m going to say it anyway because I think it’s important.
A new trailer for the new Legend of Zelda game was released yesterday morning, along with the official game title and release date. Nintendo’s tweet of the video gained hundreds of thousands of notes within minutes as it was widely shared and celebrated across social media.
I had fun for about an hour and then went offline. Bitches gotta work.
When I came back later that evening, I saw dozens of people posting things along the lines of, “Are any other neurodivergent folks stimming or having trouble concentrating after the trailer dropped?”
It’s obviously not my business to say who is and isn’t neurodivergent. Obviously.
Still, I don’t think being excited about something is “neurodivergent,” especially not when your excitement is amplified by a large community in which you’re participating in real time. Like, people cheering when their team wins at a sports game and then celebrating together afterward are not “neurodivergent.” They’re just happy.
I think it’s fucked up that we’re so far removed from our own intuitive understanding of happiness and joy that young people will interpret a normal response of getting excited about something fun as “neurodivergent,” meaning that this communal sense of happiness is something that “normal” and “healthy” people should not and do not experience.
I was talking to my drug dealer (ie, the nurse practitioner who renews the prescription for my ADHD medication) the other day, and I told her that I was proud of myself for not overmedicating to get high in response to being called a “pedophile” and “an autistic freakshow” and “clearly not raped enough as a child” on Twitter a few weeks ago. She replied by saying, “Well, people with ADHD brains tend to be overstimulated by social media interaction.” Which is insane. Reducing someone to their brain chemistry is dehumanizing to begin with, but also, getting upset over some random stranger invading your space to tell you LOOKS LIKE YOUR LOBOTOMY FAILED, PLEASE DIE OF CANCER is a completely normal emotional response.
Like, I’m sorry that both my happiness due to exciting things and my anger due to upsetting things are both considered “neurodivergent.” I guess there’s something wrong with me. Please give me my pills so I can resume being a productive member of society, thank you.
Speaking of capitalism, the reason why most people do “exciting” things during vacations is precisely because the feeling of being excited is supposed to be a sustained mental state with an appropriate build-up and wind-down. This is why, back when broadcast television was a thing, advertisers would pay exponentially more for ad slots during the weekend, so that they could connect the “excitement” of their ads with the excitement of a good weekend augmented by big-name sports games and tv shows.
The Twitter news cycle is very much a 9-to-5 workday sort of thing, however. Nintendo is incentivized to make its announcements during what has become the prime time of the American online news cycle, which is 10am East Coast time. This timing is good for American journalists being paid to stay on top of press releases, not for like. Students who need to go to class.
ETA: What I'm trying to say is that I'm frustrated by mental health professionals' lack of understanding concerning how social media works and how it affects people, and I hate how medical science reconfigures normal life experiences as brain dysfunctions. I hope all neurodivergent people are doing okay.
A new trailer for the new Legend of Zelda game was released yesterday morning, along with the official game title and release date. Nintendo’s tweet of the video gained hundreds of thousands of notes within minutes as it was widely shared and celebrated across social media.
I had fun for about an hour and then went offline. Bitches gotta work.
When I came back later that evening, I saw dozens of people posting things along the lines of, “Are any other neurodivergent folks stimming or having trouble concentrating after the trailer dropped?”
It’s obviously not my business to say who is and isn’t neurodivergent. Obviously.
Still, I don’t think being excited about something is “neurodivergent,” especially not when your excitement is amplified by a large community in which you’re participating in real time. Like, people cheering when their team wins at a sports game and then celebrating together afterward are not “neurodivergent.” They’re just happy.
I think it’s fucked up that we’re so far removed from our own intuitive understanding of happiness and joy that young people will interpret a normal response of getting excited about something fun as “neurodivergent,” meaning that this communal sense of happiness is something that “normal” and “healthy” people should not and do not experience.
I was talking to my drug dealer (ie, the nurse practitioner who renews the prescription for my ADHD medication) the other day, and I told her that I was proud of myself for not overmedicating to get high in response to being called a “pedophile” and “an autistic freakshow” and “clearly not raped enough as a child” on Twitter a few weeks ago. She replied by saying, “Well, people with ADHD brains tend to be overstimulated by social media interaction.” Which is insane. Reducing someone to their brain chemistry is dehumanizing to begin with, but also, getting upset over some random stranger invading your space to tell you LOOKS LIKE YOUR LOBOTOMY FAILED, PLEASE DIE OF CANCER is a completely normal emotional response.
Like, I’m sorry that both my happiness due to exciting things and my anger due to upsetting things are both considered “neurodivergent.” I guess there’s something wrong with me. Please give me my pills so I can resume being a productive member of society, thank you.
Speaking of capitalism, the reason why most people do “exciting” things during vacations is precisely because the feeling of being excited is supposed to be a sustained mental state with an appropriate build-up and wind-down. This is why, back when broadcast television was a thing, advertisers would pay exponentially more for ad slots during the weekend, so that they could connect the “excitement” of their ads with the excitement of a good weekend augmented by big-name sports games and tv shows.
The Twitter news cycle is very much a 9-to-5 workday sort of thing, however. Nintendo is incentivized to make its announcements during what has become the prime time of the American online news cycle, which is 10am East Coast time. This timing is good for American journalists being paid to stay on top of press releases, not for like. Students who need to go to class.
ETA: What I'm trying to say is that I'm frustrated by mental health professionals' lack of understanding concerning how social media works and how it affects people, and I hate how medical science reconfigures normal life experiences as brain dysfunctions. I hope all neurodivergent people are doing okay.
no subject
I find it so weird that we have pathologized any emotion that is neither desire nor rage into neurodivergence, as a society.
Also there's a meaningful difference between the kind of hyperfixation that tends to occur as part of neurodivergence, vs. "I like a thing and an announcement about it occurred and everyone I know is excited so we're all excited together and I want to think about this Nice New Shiny instead of Boring Everyday Life." And I feel like you have definitely grasped that distinction but a lot of people have not.
People, man.
no subject
At this point I'm old enough to understand how upsetting this is, but I can imagine how a younger person looking for help and guidance might internalize this "you are your disease" mentality. And that's troubling, because there's definitely a distinction between hyperfixation and just being happy.
Also, like, damn. People having dealt with two years of shitty pandemic work and shitty pandemic education are having trouble now that things are "back to normal." Imagine that. I guess nobody is paying me to be a therapist, but how difficult is it just to tell people that their experiences are normal and valid. Honestly.
no subject
....I woke up cynical today, I guess.
I am so sorry your healthcare professionals are not helping you :( I mean I know they have it really hard the last few years but also. whew.