History of Advocacy on The Internet

This week, we read some chapters from Kapp's Autistic Community and the Neurodiversity Movement. In these readings, they discussed a lot of information about how advocacy has existed in different ways on the internet. It has come from email chains, listservs, IRCs, and more. Some websites like Autistics.org were created to spread resources and disseminate information in order to help those newer to the movement. While we don't use a lot of activism on these types of internet forums anymore, they were vital in the initial movement. They were the ways people could communicate as the internet began to develop.

Nowadays, we see accounts on websites like Twitter/Instagram/Reddit, individual blogs, hashtags, and more serving as information storage for the movements. These methods are used now because they are a lot easier to find for someone who is not savvy with the internet. It has been incredible, even in the last few years, to see how the internet has adapted and changed to become more accessible.

In terms of my movement, there has been a big change in the type of internet advocacy used. It started off as a somewhat grassroots movement for Earth Day 1970 where the organizers had to rely on calls and flyers to get the word out across the country. Then, the organization of protests shifted towards using email chains and listervs. Now, social media has been a huge part of spreading knowledge about not only protests but why decreasing our environmental footprint is important. Many activists share resources and tips to help others live a more sustainable life.