The internet let separated people find each other
A layer of shared knowledge, community, and communication that changed who could be heard — and who stopped being alone.
I want to add another layer of shared knowledge, community, and communication here: the age of the internet. Most of us remember the change in our lives — the dramatic change, in some cases — with the emergence of multiple threads of communication with family, far-away friends, people outside our communities, the world at large.
The increased use of the internet as a radically new way for otherwise separated groups of individuals to find each other through common interests, values, struggles, and stories gave birth to a robust movement of support and validation.
To find others with similar experiences across the world, but also in your own city and your own neighborhood, when before you might have felt completely isolated and alone — that is not a small technical footnote in this history. That is infrastructure for belonging.