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Malcolm Gladwell Small Change Summary

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In Malcolm Gladwell’s article, “Small Change,” found in The New Yorker talks of activism and its development into modern day society is targeted. Through the details of examples that happened in the real world, a sense of reality and importance is placed on the activism. By saying that “High-risk activism...is a ‘strong-tie’ phenomenon” (Gladwell, 2018, p. 2), the article places importance on the activism that deals with physical human interaction. The essay opposes that social media enforces activism and its power by saying that, “the platforms of social media are built around weak ties” (Gladwell, 2018, p. 4). While informed social media users contribute to heightened awareness and activism, some respondents may “like” the page without understanding …show more content…

Before social media, social activism was read from newspapers and heard on the radio. Modern day, if people want to take part in social movements they can view the movements page on Facebook or visit their website. With the help of the internet, news can spread to more people and gather more support with the number of followers. The issue with social media activism is that the people will like the movement’s page, but do nothing further. This leads to a false front on the data collected through the online pages versus the action that was actually seen in the past. If people would not have joined those events, there would not be an article to read today. By having worthy causes and fairly easy ways to help, the protests and campaigns all conquered what they were made for and did their duty. By the repetition of these events, one understands that the importance is placed on the activism. With the development of social media, activism has skyrocketed and the knowledge of social movements is widely known. The contrasting events, such as the four young men’s boycott versus the Bhatia campaign, all help give the reader more ways to understand the activism. The oddity of the last story leaves readers with a thought of their own, everyday lives and how they can see activism in their world. Social media has many perks in the world of social activism that can lead to advances in the modern

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In “Small Change”, Malcolm Gladwell explains how activism is affected by social media. Gladwell looks negatively upon new “tools” of social media for activism, in particular social activism. She thinks this form of activism is weak and perhaps not even activism. She defends activism as unions of people who have a personal relationship and fight against a conflict that involves them all. An example of this in the text is the Civil Rights movement, where African

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In conclusion, my Big Idea Question for the week will be: Do you think that social media has hurt the authenticity of activism/Kairos, making it too casual or convenient to deeply care about the

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It makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact"(142). Technology allows people to easily connect to others, but it has made it difficult for users to actually get involved. The social world is meant for individuals to connect and express, but it is not made for users to not have sensitivity on any impact. Hierarchical organizations allow individuals to show their impact with one another through strong ties. People are permitted to create bonds with strong face-to-face ties, instead of trying to create strong ties over a computer screen.

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Because the use of technology has increased in frequency in recent years across all spheres of daily life, the integration of digital technologies within protest spaces is unsurprising. Protest spaces have become more networked-oriented as a result of these changes, shifting from more traditional models of collective action. Lance Bennett and Alexandra Segerberg discuss the changing protest ecology in The Logic of Connective Action: Digital Media and the Personalization of Contentious Politics, examining shifts in political action networks and the changing dynamics of protest spaces in context with technology. As such, their analysis of political action networks provides an understanding of the protest space that includes recognition of technology’s

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Since this movement was based on active involvement the passive slacktivism did not aid the visual aspect of occupying public space where the movement had fluctuating aims based on its makeup. Along with discussion came a connection within the protesters. This allowed grievances to be shared easily (Howard & Hussian). This connection was vital to keep the protesters involved. As important as the internet was in sharing information it could not create the same strong ties that personal interactions could

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Often time is history it can be seen where governments do not give citizens the right to free speech. This is of course our First Amendment right as citizens of the United States but on social media people seem to forget that there are people on the other end who have rights just as much as they themselves do. Paulat’s research has compiled the fact that young Americans attack each other many times based on political views through social media. Sometimes people may know each other within these electronic disputes but people can also be strangers. Paulat discusses how social media created a platform for social activists and speakers to give up to date information to a wide spread audience anywhere in the world but it can still be considered dangerous to perform this act of spreading knowledge.

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He highlight the progressive role that crowds play in challenging social injustices by acting collectively to resolve situation, empowering communities and expressing

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In Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “Small Change,” he explores the role of social networking in the modern world and its power in influencing social change. Ultimately, Gladwell suggests that for social change to be successful it requires hierarchical organization and strong ties. Social media is a perfect means of building networks and increasing participation in those who have no personal ties with a particular cause. Although, the lack of strong personal ties is what causes the lack of motivation for people to get involved, and these networks are only effective at lessening the motivation that participation requires. Gladwell shows that though social media is ideal for stirring up a group for the right kind of cause, the networks it creates cannot

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