The Importance of Social Media to Activism Essay

Our generation has been filled with outstanding technological advancements. Indeed, even only 15 years back, the absence of moment correspondence and the innovation accessible for scope had a significant effect in challenging. Even just 15 years ago, the lack of instant communication and the technology available for coverage made all the difference in protesting. Michel Corey in a peer reviewed article, noted how protesting is more simple with the new usage of technology. Corey goes into detail about an application, created by students, on their phones that sends updates on the current protest.This is just one example of the advance type of protesting. In contrast, we see a negative consequence of the social media in protesting by losing some of the

One of the main arguments in Malcolm Gladwell's "Small Change" is that social media has a huge impact on activism positively and negatively.In the 1960's it took 10s of thousands of people to come to make a change like the sit-ins but now with twitter and facebook, people just have to group together and contact the network they want, to make changes.It's a lot safer to get a point across on social media then taking the risks people took back then to get a point across. Social media has no real sense of authority so they don't make as much of a movement as the N.A.A.C.P did. With social media comes no organization or structure which causes false information to be passed around. In the end, both types of activism have their positive and negative

Throughout Malcolm Gladwell essay he describes several examples of activism of different political movements. I agree with Gladwell’s argument about social media, like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc., is a form of weak-tie activism and strong-tie activism requires strong connections to other individuals who are willing to sacrifice for a cause. Throughout the essay, the author takes us through different scenarios in history to prove his point regarding the difference between traditional activism and non-traditional.

Gladwell’s piece explains why social media will not be an effective tool in organizing activism. He claims that social media is not a dangerous tool to truly change the existing state of affairs. Throughout his essay, Gladwell refers to many different protests throughout history and calls on the reader to discern that the events that did not use social media were better and more centrally organized and often more successful. The higher success rate in the protests without social media is cause of “strong tie“ phenomenon which is when people have an invested interest in the event due to emotional bonds and face to face social connections. An example that Gladwell uses of a successful protest was the Greensboro sit-ins. Due to face to face contact,

Gladwell also has several best-selling books. In Gladwell’s article, he compares activism from the 1960’s to modern day activism and the methods of organization. Back in the 1960’s, activism was planned by word of mouth and had to be more structured. Today’s activism can be planned by clicking the keys of one’s computer and is less structured.

I believe there are two types of activism, one which constitutes confrontational action to get their point across, using only peaceful and educated means, and one which constitutes a policy of direct militant action to achieve a social or political goal. In the novel Black Bird, Michel Basilieres suggests that activism, displayed by the FLQ, is one of ethnic narrow nationalism which promotes violence and disruption of the civil peace for a cause that they, the FLQ, feel would produce a more egalitarian society. Although this is an option and a belief for some, there is an alternative. This alternative is one used in the current aspect of activism in which globalism and capitalism is fought. The means of this activism are that of peaceful

Many activists get inspired in many ways they read and hear from other people or being treated witnessed something. Many people are getting judged how they look or how they talk.

Activism by definition is “a doctrine or practice that emphasizes direct vigorous action especially in support of or opposition to one side of a controversial issue.” It is the ability of the people to do radical things in

Today, nearly 250 million children -about 40% of the world’s children, can’t read a single sentence. This is mainly due to poverty and the inability of some families to pay for their child’s education. Cynthia Changyit Levin an activist living in Saint Louis, Missouri is one example of someone who is determined to help solve this problem. She recently became an activist after giving up her job revolving around engineering. She felt empowered one night after thinking about all of the people around the world living in poverty. From then on she has been an activist focused on anti-poverty, this topic branches into world hunger, women empowerment, global thirst, etc. Cynthia has a blog, website, facebook and

Social movements come about as people of small groups which are loosely connected are united by a single purpose. Unlike interest groups who are often bureaucratic, social movements are loosely organized. Protests are often done to express people’s dissent or support on a certain issue or advocacy. However, not all social movements are able to thrive since their existence relies on the existence of a certain event or issue. Some social movements also decline since they succeeded, especially in movements with very specific goals. For others, movements are also at risk of repression and co-optation from the government, especially in non-democratic countries.

Activism: The policy or action of vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change. That is what activism is. Many things go into activism such as social media, vocal power, purpose, evidence & opinion, and finally knowledge on the topic. At the moment I am going to talk about the social media portion. Before you ask why I named this essay “Silent” Activism, let me tell you. Activism is nowhere near silent. In order to be a real activist you have to be loud for your cause. What I mean by “silent” activism is that social media is quiet. When you use social media you are behind a screen. You’re not actually talking to someone personally, yet you can make a big difference with followers, news, businesses, etc. Many activists have

Generally, this papers attempted to present a few examples. Choosing to define “activism” loosely itself may be judged as an act of activism too. But, the paper only attempted to break down the liberal ideological ownership of the term. The definitions can be summarized as the willingness to strike down laws, to depart from authority of text, history, and/or precedent, to include sweeping rules or reach out to decide issues not properly before the Court, or to impose intrusive remedial orders on someone (Young 2002, 1141). This is a complete definition that satisfies all the examples presented in this paper. Clarifying the definition of activism is still without finality, but activism is no longer just championed by the liberal

Social media played a major part in the recent contemporary movements of the world. Sites such as Facebook and Twitter have become more than just a site to contact friends, and this shows in some recent social movements. Social media was used throughout the Arab Spring, Indignabo, and Occupy Movements. There were many similarities, but also key differences in how social media was used. By comparing and contrasting these movement, several patterns of success can be pointed out as well as the flaws with their use of social media. While understanding modern movements is important, it is also vital to understanding historical movements to see how strategies have changed and stayed the same. The Civil Rights movement happened around fifty years

The Occupy Movement has truly digitized and brought into the new world the ways in which people come together to defend their rights as citizens of a swiftly globalizing society. People flock to online social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to demonstrate their outrage and beliefs toward systems set by the 1% that do not mesh with what the majority need or what the majority deems they need. People, who want to start a movement, go online and tell anyone with access to the Internet to join him or her in a stand against government or large corporations, and for a minimal fee at that. A great ordeal for the people from the 60s/70s/80s was trying to get their messages across to as much people as possible without any tampering from outside forces (editors, government officials) and with as little budget as possible. The movement has revolutionized the revolution, changing how the

Activism today is not what activism has been in the past. Social media and the internet have taken over and changed what the definition of Activism is in this new generation. Malcolm Gladwell in Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted states, “The new tools of social media have reinvented social activism.” I very much agree with this. In the past it was protested, and fought for. Many people were hurt or even killed over what they believed was right. Today those who consider themselves activists think they are helping all they can by posting an Instagram picture, seeing how many shares they can get from their Facebook posts, or how many retweets they receive. Don’t get me wrong, social media has changed the way we spread the news. When something big in the world happens it takes about two minutes for almost every social media site or website to post about it, even though sometimes it’s not always correct or all of the information. However, it has also made us lazy. When we don’t agree with something or want to change something we don’t go out and speak our mind or have a protest. We sign a petition on Facebook or even just complain about it on a website.