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Malcolm Gladwell Essay On Internet Activism

1523 Words7 Pages

Is internet activism, or slacktivism, weak? Yes, according to Malcolm Gladwell. In this essay we will first summarize Gladwell’s investigation and apprehension’s, and then apply these analysis’ to the “International Anti-Fur Coalition Fur Free (IAFC, 2006)” & the “Greenpeace, Have a break? (International, 2010)” campaigns. We will identify of the features each of these campaigns and attempt to explain how they contributed to the victory or defeat of each campaign.
Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted” (Gladwell, 2010), begins by deliberating over the impact of social media on activism in modernity. In the 1960’s activism had an entirely different technique than it does currently; sit-ins were organized that …show more content…

Greenpeace states: A big 'Thank You!' to the hundreds of thousands of you who supported our two-month Kit Kat campaign by e-mailing Nestlé, calling them, or spreading the campaign message via your Facebook, Twitter and other social media profiles. This morning, Nestlé finally announced a break for the orangutan - as well as Indonesian rainforests and peatlands - by committing to stop using products that come from rainforest destruction (Greenpeace, 2010). This victory conveys a clear missive to the palm oil and paper industry that rainforest annihilation is not a tolerable practice in today's global marketplace. Even though the video was removed from YouTube, calls of censorship and suppression spawned spin-offs and within hours of it being re-posted on a different site views soared to over a million. Facebook was an additional crucial online arena for the Kit Kat campaign (International, 2010), where a constant torrent of pressure was applied to Nestlé through remarks left on its Facebook Fan page. While many others also wore their support on their sleeve Facebook-style by exchanging their profile pictures to images of our campaign Kit Kat 'killer' logo, orangutans, and rainforest (International,

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He asserts that the weak ties made through virtual connections are not enough, and it takes genuine, real-world connections to make an activist group committed enough to jeopardize their lives and well-being. Gladwell urges that because of the media, people who are marching for a cause are not forced to bond together as they undergo risks. The individual can donate a dollar or post a hash-tag on Twitter to show their contribution, and remain detached from the actual

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Gladwell’s most memorable quote, “[a]ctivism that challenged the status quo-- that attacks deeply rooted problems-- is not for the faint of heart (Gladwell 311).” Through this, Gladwell is trying to get across to the readers his definition of activism is not merely sending letters, using hashtags on twitter, or sending emails to the specific nations head of state to address a specific issue; true activism is not protesting with signs with words just simply written on them. To Gladwell, he considers true activism to be people who risk their lives, people who put their lives on the line to show clearly to the public the hidden, deep-rooted problem; something that catches someone’s eye and is rebellious in nature. True activism is going against normal societal standards, as Gladwell puts it, “activism that challenge[s] the status quo”; it is to do something rationally unexpected, something that will tick people off enough so others will know about it, not through social media but through people, like the good ol’ days. Gladwell’s definition of true activists know when they protest, they have a chance of becoming injured, or even killed.

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