When the first box of tea was tossed into the Boston Harbor over 240 years ago individuals have been rallying together to support each other against injustices and causes they opposed. On that fateful night Samuel Adams and his compatriots set in motion a series of events that led to war, and three years later the United States of America was founded.

Since 1776 America has been the home to many protest and social reforms. Peoples ability to join together to take on oppression, injustices, or discrimination has led to lasting changes and shaped our modern day existence. As the causes have evolved so too has the format in which these efforts of social advocacy occur. Historically these efforts existed as a large-scale protest or march in a city. One of the largest occurred in 1995 in Washington D.C. it was organized and billed as the “Million Man March.”

 photo by Joacim Österstam licensed under CC by 2.0

As times have changed so too has our methods of protesting and calling for social change. Replacing the rather difficult organizational task of getting thousands if not hundreds of thousands of individuals to the same place at the same time is our new breed of advocacy: The Social Media Hashtag (#)

In general, we have shifted to the digital protest and in large part away from the boots on the ground efforts of protest past. This is not to say the old-fashioned in-person protest is dead, any of us living in NYC can quickly recall the craziness that became of 5th Ave surrounding Trump Tower just last November. But for every person that took to the streets, to chant against our 45th President-Elect, thousands of more tweets and Facebook post were quickly posted. #NotMyPresident #StillWithHer #F**kTrump rocketed into trending status became digital rallying cries for our very divided nation.

Are these new forms of social media advocacy effective compared to their old school counterparts is a discussion for an upcoming post.