Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted

Debunking the myth of hierarchical necessity brings us back to the original question regarding the role of social media in propagating societal change. Gladwell elegantly states that social media is "not a natural enemy of the status quo." Thus, the question becomes whether social media can in fact contribute to the process of forming a significant social movement and effective social action, as opposed to whether it can serve as a satisfactory substitute for that process. Referring to the previous stated example, a phone is certainly not a branch of

During the 2011 Egypt uprising protesters gained support through social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to help end poverty and unemployment in which they were experiencing at the time. This major flow of support from across the world helped strengthen the protesters cause and led to an eventual victory in Egypt (Brym 2014).

Ryan Sorge Rachel Thomas Composition 1 4 September 2015 Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted Summary In the essay Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, The author Malcolm Gladwell, explains the pros and cons of how activism has transformed into social media, instead of social activism. Without social media, he explained that protests and large group gatherings can be arranged, without social media, successfully. High-risk activism has "strong-ties", while social media has "weak ties". Using the web has turned into a critical component in which the way people live today.

In the essay ‘Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted’ by Malcolm Gladwell, he writes of how the revolutions of today will never amount to those of the past due to the lack of interactions that social media provides. In the article Tweet Like An Egyptian by Kevin Clarke, who writes of the revolution started by Arab women who learned of all the freedoms in the world by interacting on the Internet and wanting the same rights as all of the other women who have freedom in civilized countries around the world.

Popular opinion believes that the internet, email and social media such as Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat has reinvented social activism for the good, but is this belief really true? In his article, SMALL CHANGE: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted, Malcolm Gladwell makes a compelling argument that this is not really true and in fact, the spread of social media has caused us to lower the bar as to what activism really means. He starts by showing us how activism worked in the 1960s during the Civil Rights movement and how in a relatively short period of time thousands of people joined sit-ins and or protests throughout the South - without the use of social media! He describes the movement as a well-orchestrated movement by the NAACP and

This transformation of power is easier to get, harder to use and easier to lose” pg 2. The connectivity of people communicating and collaborating with one another has caused a shift in power. Our digital age has made it possible for people to connect, share and exchange information, through Facebook, LinkedIn, tweeter and Instagram. These social networks are design to build relationships and to provide a means to stay socially connected. In Naims’ book, he describes three revolutions that support his reasoning for the decay in power: More, Mobility and Mentality revolutions. These revolutions connect with the mindset, expectations and aspirations of individuals. Naims’s believes that “people’s actions are driven by the possibility of a better quality of life”. The social communications allows individual to have the confidence to use social media to make changes in their communities. “A change in mindset is a change in mentality that inevitability changes life styles. pg

In this age of technology advancement and with the inventions of smart devices such as mobile phones,tablets home computers that give people access to the whole world through social media platforms.One often wonders what are the people,who have an easy access to issues and matters across the globe doing ? Where are they spending most of their time and what are they up to?The simple answer to that question is that a relatively larger number of existing human beings nowadays are spending their time,on their smart devices addressing their views on socio-political issues.Also,can this selected population of human beings, advocate for social change just by scrolling through critical issues,liking and sharing their opinions on them while also typing their comments,in a virtual platform. Malcolm Gladwell effectively critiques 21st-century social activism because history suggests that traditional activism has shown to bring about change in the real world by tackling issues at hand in reality,rather than debating on them in a Facebook Group.

As technology develops rapidly in the modern society, the broad social influence it brings is also widely discussed, especially about its effects on social change. In the past, social movements were raised without the help of technology, specifically without social media, whereas social media has recently played a non-ignorable role. The connection between social media and social activisms concerned, here come some different voices. Few people maintain that social media now has no practical influence on social change, while others hold the opposite view, thinking social media is already a crucial factor in it. Personally speaking, I agree with the second kind of view: it is true that social media is not able to create social movements by itself in today’s world, but it plays an important and essential part in making real social change.

Gladwell also believes “social media can’t provide what social change has always required" (402) because it can’t provide strong bones and strong leaders. Gladwell is saying that the sense of leadership and complete trust is necessary for things that demand big risk to happened. It’s all about sacrifice and what people are willing to give up for

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

The two articles I read for ThinkCERCA were about activism using social media. They highlighted one particular example, Wael Gonhim’s Facebook page, Kullena Khaled Said. Using social media, he was able to hear about a current event, and make a difference. The question was “Based on the evidence provided in these two articles and the visual sources, how did social media affect the Arab Spring in Tunisia and Egypt?”

This use of social media in this movement is perhaps one of the most impactful methods of online political protests known to date due it to its far-reaching scope and heavy reliance on online communication and organization between activists. These internet-based protests soon spread to the offline world and helped shape the entirety of the Arab Spring both in the eyes of its participants and those watching from around the world. However, the internet and its help reach much farther than just this one example. Previous North Korean citizens have also used the platform to express the mistreatment of its citizens, allowing their once hushed voices to be heard on a global scale. Sites like YouTube host a vast array of videos with North Koreans detailing the trauma experienced during their time in the autocratic

This essay discusses the impact of Twitter on the public contribution into political social movements. Firstly, I explain the globalization along with global media. Followed by media convergence and how it affects the networked individualism. Basically, I search for Twitter and the relations between online communication and political movements also known as protests. Since there are limited studies on the effects of Twitter on political social movements in Egypt, United States and Turkey, this research aims to fill the gap by exploring the globalization that develops the technology and the increase in public contribution by using social media, especially Twitter during the protests in these countries.

While use of technology has contributed to a substantial part of one’s life, it has come with both good and bad ties. Technology has helped us create different forms of communicating with each other whether it’s through social media, text messages or phone calls. Social media has made it easier to connect with others whether they are close by or across the country. People use the internet for a variety of reasons including posting pictures of one’s life or to see how other’s are doing in their life. It is used to keep up with everyone’s life when one personally take part in it. A good use for technology is being able to use the internet to spread a movement and being virtually united with others. Malcolm Gladwell explains how the internet has been used toward activism and protests in his essay, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted.” Gladwell defines the strong and weak ties about technology and social media being used for activism. He provides examples of how people are using social media to project their voice or spread their movement and how quickly it makes it’s way around the world. Although he makes an argument that social media may be useful to start a movement, he does feel that it doesn’t work as well for activism. Gladwell points out that social media has it’s weak ties when comparing the connection between two people through social media and the connection between two people that know each other personally. Sherry Turkle also makes the same

Society has changed over the years. One social change in society would be social media. Being able to share opinions so freely has become a hot topic in today’s news. For example, social media not only allows gateways to others confidential information but it also serves as a way for terrorist to send threats that can be seen by the public. With social media, comes technology which creates new possibilities. Computer technology; shrinks the world by decreasing time and distance between sources of information. It improves medical care with quick diagnostic and treatment information through video consultation, and increases educational learning options and workplace options.