Summary Of Small Change By Malcolm Gladwell

In a society driven by technology, social media has become a vehicle for organizing large groups of people who may represent a similar cause but lack a strong bond. In an article written by Malcolm Galdwell titled “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted.”, published in The New Yorker on October 4th, 2010, he argues that high risk activism cannot be achieved through the means of social media. Although networks have the capability to assembly millions of people, the author looks to argue the effectiveness of these ties. He emphasizes his argument by comparing and contrasting recent events to examples of the civil rights movement of the early 1960’s that shook America. The intent of this essay is to analyze Gladwell’s strategies

Malcolm Gladwell’s ability to highlight the powerful impact of several events from the past is how he’s able to substantiate his case. Utilizing the method of factual explanation, he’s able to associate high-risk activism to strong ties and compare it to low-risk activism and weak ties. Right from the beginning it’s easy to pick up on the author’s logical approach to his argument. Gladwell opens by narrating a historical example of real activism that took place in Greensboro, N.C. and continues to reference back to build upon his argument. He states “These events in the early sixties became a civil rights war that engulfed the South for the rest of the decade—and it happened without e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter.” (Gladwell). The message being conveyed is today’s technology isn’t necessary for a civil rights movement to be successful. Further evidence to support this claim is in Gladwell’s next example about the failed attempts

Gladwell is able to exhibit his values, and gain the trust of his readers by displaying his knowledge and research on the topic. He presents such statements as “This is the second crucial distinction between traditional activism and its online variant: social media are not about this kind of hierarchical organization.” (Gladwell). Not only does he reveal countless evidence throughout the article, but he starts to take a deeper look into what the issues are versus just expressing his opinion. In addition to his style of writing, he discusses how social media forms a large network based upon consensus while lacking a central authority. Gladwell continues relating social media to the type of activity that “will seldom lead to high risk activism” (Gladwell), while fairly acknowledging how weak ties can have some benefit, to demonstrate the counter-argument some might try to dispute. Gladwell details a story written in a book by Andy Smith and Jennifer Aaker of a young man that needed a bone-marrow transplant. It is explained that networking through e-mail is what helped get the word out and thousands then registered in the database, which resulted in a match being found. He then follows up the very next paragraph with the instance of the Save Darfur Coalition. Stating the alarming statistics of over a million members donating an average of