During the period of the protests, when all major media outlets had been spotlighting Occupy all over the world, the protests were an omnipresent truth, a constant reminder of the inequalities that we all face. But where did it go, exactly? To the average citizen, it seems to have faded away as quickly as it arose.

The strange thing is that the Occupy movement continues on. There are dozens if not hundreds of websites dedicated to spreading the mission of the Occupy protestors far and wide. They still organize protests on a regular basis and they still do whatever they can to fight against the perceived injustices. But you don’t hear much about it through the mass media anymore.

The biggest change is the shift in media attention. During the buildup and culmination of the Occupy Wall Street protests, the mass media was covering Occupy Wall Street at all times. Twenty four hour news networks had a non-stop stream of information on the protests, whether there was anything serious to report or not. Occupy captured the attention of people all over America, and even the whole world. But like with any other news story, once something more exciting comes along, the media shifts their attention.

In this case, the non-violent sit ins and the attempts to right wrongs through peaceful protest eventually caused a lull in the national conversation. It eventually caused the media to move on to more short-term “exciting” news prospects. Essentially, the news coverage was so intense because it seemed exciting and new.

But the Occupy Movement is still going strong. The topic of conversation has been opened upf for widespread debate by people of all income levels, and income inequality is a generally agreed upon political issue, regardless of whether you believe there’s a real problem or not.

The protesters themselves still continue to hold regular protests all over the world with varying degrees of intensity. In fact, many of the so-called “official” Occupy groups managed to register as actual charities, and carry on with a more official mission, attempting to produce changes within the system from inside the system.

So the real answer to the question of what happened to the Occupy movements: It settled down a little bit. It was tempered into something more straightforward and, in some ways, more meaningful. The Occupy movement and it’s protesters were able to create channels for the average citizen to be heard on the subject of income inequality. And with the charities and organizations that sprouted out from the initial protests on Wall Street (and all over the world,) there is now places for the 99% to get together and discuss issues of inequality and to organize attempts to enact change.

1. The Brooklyn Bridge

On Saturday, October 1st, 2011 more than 700 people were arrested on Brooklyn Bridge in New York. Thousands of people were moving from the origin of the Occupy Wall Street protests at Zuccotti park to Brooklyn Park. While crossing the bridge, groups of protesters sat down and blocked off the bridge. While some people claim that the police were already blocking off the bridge before people were sitting down, it is clear that the arrests were made for making a public disturbance. This is the largest number of arrests at an Occupy event and it happened early on, and helped propel Occupy Wall Street into the international media.

2. Times Square

On Sunday October 16th, 2011 police arrested 92 Occupy protesters for creating a disturbance in Times Square. Still early on in the events of the worldwide Occupy movement, the protests were still bold and spreading wildly. A large group of protesters made their way from Zuccotti Park to Times Square, putting tourists face to face with the civil unrest taking place throughout New York. over 40 arrests were made directly in Times Square, but police continued arresting protesters as they left. Another group of 24 protesters were arrested while attempting to make their way north to “occupy” a branch of Citibank in Manhattan.

3. Occupy Chicago

On Saturday October 15th, 2011 protesters at Occupy Chicago had police enter their camp and start dismantling it. The police entered the Occupy Chicago camp late at night and began dismantling the camp, located at Congress Plaza near Grant Park. They arrested 175 protesters, citing city code violations, as the plaza closes at 11pm. After warning the protesters before 11pm, the police waited until after midnight before making arrests.

Considered a peaceful event, the protesters reacted by telling the police that they were showing the protesters what democracy was really like.

All 175 people arrested were released the following morning.

4. Occupy Los Angeles

On Wedneday, November 30, 2011 Occupy Los Angeles had police dismantle their camp and arrest every individual who failed to disperse. The second largest series of arrests at a single protest, the Occupy protesters maintained their commitment to nonviolence, ensuring that during over 290 arrests, the 1400 police officers that made their way into that camp that evening encountered no violent resistance.

Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa credited his Police Chief’s attempts at keeping positive relations with the protesters early on during the events of Occupy L.A. for the lack of violence, but spokespeople for the Occupy Los Angeles camp stated that violence would not have furthered their cause.

Instead of releasing the protesters as they did in Chicago, bail was set for $5,000. A city spokesperson claimed that most of them had arranged to make bail, but no official reports were released afterwards.

The slogan was a unifying force in the Occupy Wall Street movement. It helped spread the message of inequality that the movement was attempting to shine a light upon. Specifically, between the late 1970’s and the beginning of the Occupy Wall Street movement in 2011, the wages for the top one percent of earners multiplied nearly three times, while the average lower and middle class American’s wages increased by only sixty percent.

The slogan dates back to 1765, and is featured in a letter to the editor in the New York Gazette, “”Is it equitable that 99, or rather 999 should suffer for the Extravagance or Grandeur of one?”

More recently the same idea was written by Aldous Huxley in a letter to his brother regarding the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. “…think of what ninety nine percent of the human race want – food, shelter, a secure family life and to be left alone by bosses and busybodies. Unfortunately the one percent who are interested in power and ideals and ideologies are the ones who call the tune.”

The original use of the slogan in the context of the Occupy Wall Street movement was a simple inclusion on a poster posted on the official Occupy website. The rise and popularity, though, is due to the We Are the 99 Percent Tumblr that was started in August, 2011. The creator had put out a call for submissions, asking people to take a picture of themselves holding a sign detailing their struggles as a member of the American working class.

The Tumblr blog brought the slogan to the public’s eye. After only a month in operation the submissions had been shared through a number of prominent social media channels and through mainstream websites. Not long after, the Tumblr was spread through more mainstream media channels, including the television news. The mainstream media’s support spread the message, and the slogan, among all participants of Occupy Wall Street and helped associate the phrase as an “official” slogan of the movement.

With regards to the Occupy movement, the slogan is not meant to be taken completely literally, despite the simplicity of the phrase. While roughly half of the wealth of the United States is controlled by about one percent of the population, the slogan originated as a way to shine light on the shared struggles of the majority of the population. It gave a centralized message of shared obstacles that helped keep the movement growing and helped participants sympathize with each other’s financial struggles.

Some people accused the Occupy protests of having no real direction and a lack of unified goals. But with two months of pseudo-organization under their belts, the movement was able to put together an almost universally agreed upon doctrine. With most protesters seeking a reduction in corporate interests control over politics, a balanced income distribution, better unemployment rates, and reform preventing speculative trading by banks. But the goals were never made official, due to a lack of centralized leadership. The Occupy protests hoped to achieve a better world for the middle class.

While the Occupy Wall Street protesters may not have achieved their goals (or even achieved actually agreeing on what those goals were,) they created an international conversation to force people to consider the inequalities of the global financial system.

More specific impacts made by the Occupy movement include having the protest validated through a news conference with President Barack Obama. Obama stated, “I think it expresses the frustrations the American people feel, that we had the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression, huge collateral damage all throughout the country…” Having the protests addressed publicly in the media by the President gained the movement some traction with the general populace and helped spread their views to a wider audience.

One of the greatest impacts of the Occupy movement was the precedence that was set for non-violent protest. By October 29, 2011, only forty-two days after the Occupy Wall Street had begun, similar protests had sprung up in over two thousand cities worldwide. While there was incidents of violence reported in the news during some of these protests, they were usually involving police and no reports of violence were officially condoned by any of the protesters involved with Occupy.

Each attempt at re-enacting the Occupy Wall Street protest at Zuccotti Park has failed due to police intervention. The fear that the assembly of protesters could last months and disrupt “business as usual” for months hangs over the authorities in New York.

The effects of the protest may not be clear and obvious, but they are being felt all over the world. The scale the protests managed to achieve at such a rapid pace showed people that they were not alone in their distrust of the financial system and their concern of inequality in America and abroad. The true effects of the Occupy movement can be felt through the national dialogue, where politicians are feeling more pressure to support the middle class and where there is a growing distrust of financial institutions and big business. Occupy may not have caused a sudden shift in the way the world works, but it has caused a subtle shift in the way the world thinks. The gradual changes will continue for years, and hopefully the goals of the protests may one day be achieved.

Today, the Occupy movement still exists as a series of groups that help bring attention to social issues and in many cases are even registered charities. The original OccupyWallStreet.org website still exists, and helps to organize smaller scale protests and in some cases, more specific public displays of discontent with financial institutions and other major corporations.

The Occupy movement wasn’t a world changing event in the way that other major historical events have been. There isn’t a single line drawn where you can clearly mark how the world was before and how it is after the protests. The Occupy Wall Street protest and the thousands of others that popped up in the last few months of 2011 were more like a sudden exclamation of frustration with the financial systems that most people live under. The 99%.

The Occupy movement was able to unite people. It was able to start a slogan and give a proper voice to the middle class. It was able to prove that a truly democratic leadership structure can exist using the communications tools available to us today. And it was able to show people that they’re not alone in their frustrations. But it didn’t change the world.

Even now, the continued protests organized by OccupyWallStreet and many other chapters are at a much smaller scale and aren’t gaining any sort of media attention.

But even without the lack of serious change, the political dialogue has changed. The voice of the middle class has been heard, and the people in charge have been told that they have to listen. The middle class, who doesn’t have the lobbying dollars that the 1% use to sway government policy, have shown that they are able to organize quickly and to do so without the need for a person to rally behind. The idea is enough.

And because Occupy brought the idea in front of the world, even people who didn’t participate in the protests are conscious of the stand that was made. Public opinion of Occupy remained high through most events at nearly all protest camps all over the world.

Occupy lives on by being the representation of a moment in time where people showed that they are willing to unite in the name of equality. And while not much has changed since culmination of the Occupy protests, the idea continues to exist. And it’s a powerful idea.

An example and commonly used secured loan is a home equity loan. To receive a home equity loan one has to provide the lender rights in your residence as collateral. Similarly with an auto loan, an individual is using the automobile as collateral for the loan. In the event of a default, the lender has the right to take possession of the vehicle.

Secured loans tend to offer the most attractive terms, providing borrowers with low rates, greater borrowing amounts and longer terms to repay the loan. Secured loans for people with bad credit by definition implies that you are providing something as collateral, and that the loan will be paid off in accordance with the terms of the deal. Examples of secured loans include boat loans, home equity lines of credit, home equity loans, recreational vehicle loans and auto loans.

Effectively, the asset is considered to be “encumbered,” which simply implies that in most cases that asset cannot be transferred or sold by the borrower. This is only allowed to occur if the borrower has the lenders consent, unless of course the debt is completely paid off. If the asset is sold or transferred without the full amount of the debt being repaid, the lender takes ownership of the asset, subject to the lender’s lien.

There are options available as the lender is able to take legal action to try and take possession of an asset specified in the secured loan agreement, if of course the borrower defaults. Taking ownership of the assets give the lender the ability to sell the asset and erase the outstanding debt. If in fact the sales proceeds are more than the loan amount outstanding, the lender is obliged legally to give the extra capital to the borrower.

Unsecured loans are different from secured as there is not an asset pledged as collateral. When an individual applies for an unsecured loan, the lender has to come to the conclusion that the borrower is able to repay the loan based on their financial resources.

Providing an unsecured loan is not based upon anything material, meaning that the individual does not have to offer the lender ownership of an agreed upon, such as ones car or home, in case the borrower is unable to repay the debt. These type of loans tend be more cumbersome to receive and are normally provided at rates higher than loans that are secured. They also tend to have borrowing limits that are lower.

Unsecured loans generally rely primarily on an individual’s credit history and their source and level of income in order to qualify for the loan. If there is a default on an unsecured loan, the lender has a more difficult and tedious time collecting that with a secured loan. Options include multiple lawsuits and the use of debt collectors to recover some or the entire loan amount. Some examples of unsecured loans include student loans, personal loans and personal lines of credit.

In the event that a borrower defaults, the lender unfortunately is unable to claim any of the borrower assets even though some may exist. The borrower can try and attempt to collect the loan amount using prescribed methods and inform any amount that has defaulted to multiple credit reporting agencies. This in turn can negatively affect the credit score of the borrower. The decision on whether to take out a secured or unsecured loan depends on what or if the borrower is willing to pledge.

But as any Occupy protester would tell you, there was no unifying force behind the protests. There was only small splinter groups that gained momentum as each group continued to gain momentum. The groups communicated online, using social networks like Twitter to share information about social injustice and each groups protests. Hundreds of Facebook groups, Tumblr blogs, websites, and even specialized Occupy-specific Twitter accounts sprouted up seemingly overnight.

But even at the peak of the Occupy Wall Street protests the communication wasn’t really organized. Individual protesters each took it upon themselves to become a voice for their movement. Nobody agreed on who was going to be the face of the Occupy movement. Each individual protester who helped maintain the communications between Occupy chapters decided to get more involved and to help spread information on the movement and for the movement. This decentralized process is truly democratic. The more useful information you provide, the more people would check for updates. The highest quality and most interesting communication channels grew fastest.

This decentralized structure was exactly what made Occupy Wall Street so powerful at it’s peak. Because there was no figurehead or individual person to remove, the protest was built around an idea and the ability to communicate individual opinions and views of that idea almost instantly. The participants were truly equal.

The outsider’s perception of structure within the movements springs from the power of this decentralized communications hub. The ability to instantly communicate online helped each protest in every location to be united in message and for news of any sort of police resistance to be spread almost instantly. The ease of spreading information also helped the protests grow rapidly. The social media presence across so many channels with so many protesters getting involved was powerful enough to make it almost impossible for anybody to avoid. There was no big marketing push or recruitment drive because they didn’t need one. Everybody already knew.

In more recent days, with the momentum of the Occupy movement falling to a standstill, the structure will continue to retract until there is a more centralized authority on the subject. But by the time that happens, the only reason for their additional authority will be their experience on the subject. Nothing would prevent other Occupy veterans from getting involved again and regaining some spotlight. And nothing would stop even brand new participants from joining up, rallying the population, and organizing something similar. All you need is the tools.

The first protest started in Zuccotti park, in the financial district of Lower Manhattan. Within a month Occupy had 2300 camps in over 2000 cities worldwide. Each protest was separate from the others. Each protest had no leader. Each protest had the same goals and were unified under the Occupy banner.

Protesters all over the world were using blogs and social networks like Twitter to spread information and to organize. Due to the instant worldwide communication and the sheer number of people on Twitter, the protests were able to remain cohesive and appear to be unified despite having no traditional structure to work under.

Twitter was the most prominent social network for the global dissemination of information because of it’s huge user base and the ability to use hashtags to bring people together. On Twitter, the #Occupy hashtag was born, and through the use of that hashtag, thousands upon thousands of people were able to communicate instantly.

While other social networks maintained groups, such as the several hundred Facebook pages on the subject of Occupy, the #Occupy hashtag was usable by everybody. Completely democratic, like the protests themselves.

A newcomer had just as much ability to spread information as somebody who had been at Zuccotti park on the first day of the protests. The inherent equality that the Wall street protesters were hoping to achieve for the American people was simply built into the way they communicated over Twitter.

The speed at which Twitter works also allowed for people all over the world to organize their own protests. People from all over the world who were seeing Occupy Wall Street on the news were able to check the #Occupy Twitter hashtag and immerse themselves in the protest from the point of view of hundreds if not thousands of people. They could then join the conversation, broadening the scope of the protests, and in some cases even spread the information among their own Twitter followers.

While many protests have occurred at a large scale without the help of social networks like Twitter, the Occupy Wall Street protest was able to maintain a powerful force for over two months and even spread its message worldwide to millions of people with no leadership or traditional marketing of any kind. Because of Twitter, Occupy Wall Street wasn’t a fringe band of frustrated Americans trying to organize a protest. It was instead a public movement where every American was given the opportunity to share their opinion on social inequality.

The protesters at Zuccotti park were initiated by a Canadian activist group called Adbusters. They started promoting the idea of Occupy Wall Street well before it happened, but the idea sprang up from a Canadian group. It was initiated by an American group, and then it caused a ripple of protests spreading out worldwide, all sharing the same agenda. The Occupy movement spread to thousands of cities in a matter of weeks, and with no centralized leadership, maintained an international presence in all major media for months.

There are many reasons that Occupy was able to grow to that size so quickly, but the main reason was that instead of a traditional organizational structure, the Occupy protesters worked under a decentralized banner. Using online channels, every member of the protest was able to suggest ideas, get involved in the conversation, and help promote the ideals that they Occupy movement became known for.

And because the bulk of the protests support was grown online, each Occupy camp was able to recruit more protesters at an amazing speed. Social injustice and income inequality is an issue that is frustrating to most members of the poorest 99% of Americans. And by having a constantly growing pool of supporters spreading the message of #Occupy to the fans of their blogs or their social media following, the message was able to reach basically everybody almost instantly.

The world is getting smaller. And it’s because the tools we use to communicate are getting easier to use, more powerful, and cheaper, all at the same time. Every single one of us has access to a free Facebook account, a free Twitter account, and dozens of options for free blogs. Google is a democratically assigned algorithm in which anyone who writes anything has the ability to gain an audience, and in many cases, a massive audience, just by posting it online.

And that’s how Occupy was able to grow so fast so quickly. The message wasn’t foreign to most people. But the sudden surge of people discussing the message was.

Even if you were not involved in the Occupy protests yourself, you were aware of them. At the tail end of 2011 while the protests were still growing, you had an opinion on them. The major media outlets were covering the protests as though they were the only thing that mattered in the world and it was happening all over the world.

And the use of the Internet to grow the movement so quickly was also the reason it was able to stay so powerful for so long. Because every member could communicate their wishes to every other member in such a cheap and easy way, there was no need for a traditional organizational structure. There was no leadership to disrupt the movement by leaving or faltering. There was only people sharing a message of social equality and fighting for fair income distribution and less corporate involvement in politics and many other things.

Coordinating movements through social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, Occupy protesters each had a voice and each had the ability to communicate what they wished to accomplish to each other. Through these channels, the protesters regularly shared commitments to nonviolence.

Throughout the media coverage of each protest, sensationalized coverage of each act of violence, but in most cases the violence was initiated by police, accusing the protesters of being mischievous or causing a public disturbance. Even early in the protests the media covered several events in which police pepper sprayed protesters and they did not resist. This was said to have caused a lot of public sympathy for the people involved and helped elevate the cause of the protesters.

While each protest was different, the commitment to nonviolence was generally agreed upon. As the movement grew and more camps appeared and more people got involved, reports of sexual assaults and violent incidents increased, but there was few confirmed reports of either. Some protesters claimed that the authorities were falsely reporting violent crime in an attempt to sway public opinion against the occupiers.

The commitment to nonviolence was confirmed to be an effective tool in promoting the goals of the Occupy movement when members of the Occupy Oakland camp engaged in conflict with the local police. The source of the conflict was never officially confirmed, but many people on both sides claimed that the police initiated it, while many people also claimed that the protesters initiated it. Regardless of who caused the violence, the support for the Occupy movement in the Bay area was surveyed shortly after media coverage of the conflict with police and over 26% of people who had previously supported the protesters decided to withdraw their support. Many members of the camp also withdrew support – going home and attempting to distance themselves from the protest.

In many camps where violence was reported, semi-official releases were made announcing that any form of violence against other protesters or police would not be allowed. Even without any form of centralized leadership, announcements were made to ensure that all protesters knew that violence would not be a part of the Occupy movement.

With thousands of camps and hundreds of thousands (or more) protesters involved and no true leadership, the few violent events that occurred remain as a stain on public opinion of the cause. But with almost all of the Occupy protesters remaining committed to a nonviolent form of protest even when faced with police brutality, the Occupy movement was able to gain a huge amount of public support and spread their message, protesting social inequality to the world.