Adoptees Online: Community-Building, Collective Affect, and a New Generation of Activists

abstract:I examine the rise in adoptee community-building and activism on the internet, paying close attention to the ways emotions are shared, generated, and sustained in online interactions. Utilizing a framework from the philosophy of cognitive science that argues for a collective or distributed account of affect, I argue that this model suitably explains the ways affective exchanges take place in adoptee communities. Even though these exchanges are largely asynchronous and remote, there is evidence that emotional contagion and entrainment—features that mark collective and distributed theories of affect—can be sustained online. Turning to my own adoption narrative and how my identity as an adoptee has shaped and been shaped by my experiences in "Adoptionland," I provide further evidence for the model I am proposing for understanding adoptee communities online. Finally, I argue that taking the framework I've provided seriously would have important potential benefits for improving mental healthcare and other social support systems for adult adoptees.