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Small Change Gladwell Summary

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“Don’t use social media to impress people; use it to impact people” Dave Willis. Malcolm Gladwell, would not agree or disagree with this statement. In his article “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, Gladwell talks the impact social media has on activism. He believes social media will not spur the next revolution because the connections are too weak. Social media can create small change or awareness, but it can’t lead people to take a real action. Gladwell makes some good points, but his use of examples, emotional response, and his counter-argument are not effective ways to explain himself. Gladwell uses the Greensboro protests as an example of why social media cannot make a big change but fails to connect that to his thesis. Gladwell uses …show more content…

He talks about how social media is tied around weak ties, and how Twitter and Facebook is a good way to have many friends or stay in touch with people you usually wouldn’t. But he says that if can be a wonderful thing. “There is strength in weak ties, as the sociologist Mark Granovetter has observed. Our acquaintances--not our friends-- are our greatest source of new ideas and information” (407). Here he is trying to show the good in having loads of internet friends, but explain of that can be a bad thing. But after this, he fails to do so. He doesn’t really explain further as to why the internet friends are not just a source for new ideas or information. Many times in life we are closed-minded because they have been around the same type of people, but when they hit the internet they can see how other people are feeling and why. Some people might not change their view, but many do. His counter-argument makes me disagree with a lot of the things he has already been saying. If he wanted people to agree with him, he would need stronger evidence or explanation as to why this is a bad

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323 Words | 2 Pages

A tipping point can be viewed as the significant point in a developing condition that precedes to contemporary and irreversible change. This notion has been illustrated in Malcolm Gladwell’s book “The Tipping Point”, he provides us with an understanding as to how we could perhaps induce a tipping point or plague in our own lives. If we obtain cognizance about what makes tipping points, only at that point will we be able to understand exactly how and why things happen in our world. The tipping point is that miraculous moment when a thought, style, or public actions crosses a brink and proliferates like a cell. Gladwell’s ideology can be seen in a variety of settings; some examples are when someone ill starts an epidemic of the flu, when an aimed

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1136 Words | 5 Pages

Gladwell’s arguments are structured well and he has many examples to back up his research. Although none of the examples fit together, each one relates to the law of the few. Watts was able to prove Gladwell wrong about connectors when he revisited the Milgram experiment. Gladwell’s examples are compelling, but Watt’s examples are more up to date. The big picture is that these three people are crucial to epidemics because of their abilities, but if Connectors are not as crucial as they used to be, there is now a whole different argument.

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1786 Words | 8 Pages

Ava Oyen Sherry Lind English 120 10 May 2024 Detailed Conclusions The way an author writes can have a large impact on how the reader views the piece. In Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell, word choice, tone, and many other things are used to support his arguments. The way he writes allows the reader to see into his mind and understand the many concepts he portrays. I believe that the way Gladwell writes assists in proving his arguments about thin-slicing and how it affects people’s lives each day.

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249 Words | 1 Pages

1. What does Gladwell assert in this essay? Offer a thorough explanation of why you agree with, disagree with, or qualify his assertion. In his 2010 article Small Change, Malcolm Gladwell asserts that digital activism is inefficient in challenging the current state of affairs.

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191 Words | 1 Pages

In the article ”Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted”, by Malcolm Gladwell, he describes the social activism within reality and social media. Personally, the author does not seem very credible. The reasoning for this is that he only restates examples of the way activism is used within the internet and how it relates to other real world examples. In the text he writes,”Simply put: there was no Twitter Revolution inside Iran. ”(59).

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1343 Words | 6 Pages

A journalist, and a magazine writer, Malcolm Gladwell is the author of The Tipping Point. Appealing to the common people is the main purpose of Gladwell’s book as it leads to the rapid increase in its popularity. He believes that little things create change, something that can be seen as common sense. Although Gladwell is able to gather a large number of readers and followers, he is unable to reach to people other than the common people. Gladwell is successful in manipulating the readers by playing with their emotions and by providing an immense amount of examples; he lacks credibility and attempts to use numbers to prove his point.

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1180 Words | 5 Pages

In “Small Change: Revolution Not be Tweeted” by Malcolm Gladwell , Gladwell explains his own thoughts on why even in the age of technology social media will never be the strongest way to display activism. Throughout the article the author highlights what he feels makes activism work and what he feels may not work. He thoroughly explains his reasoning for his opinions by using rhetorical strategies. For example, he notes that for a cause to be effective the people pursuing it must have a strong tie or a strong connection to it. This can tie/connection can come from experiencing the problem first hand or having multiple friends or family already involved in the cause.

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1068 Words | 5 Pages

To further convince the reader, Ludden uses a study referenced in a journal by the credible Duke University psychologist, Jenna Clark. The study addresses college students and how the more Facebook friends that freshman had, the less socially adjusted they felt, whereas with seniors, the more Facebook friends they had, the more socially adjusted they felt (Ludden). This was due to a majority of the freshmans' friends being friends from high school or back home, whereas most of the seniors' friends were friends that they had made in college, therefore they were more connected with them because they interacted with them both online and in person. This study makes it easier to understand how the effect that social media has on you fully depends on your use of it. It makes sense that one would feel isolated and less connected to their environment when they are spending their free time connecting with those who aren’t around them.

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301 Words | 2 Pages

Gladwell argues that our greatest strengths can also become our greatest weaknesses. I find Gladwell’s argument to be false based on the fact that the underdog doesn’t always win. He brings into question whether Goliath was actually a strong giant or an incapable underdog; Was David a dark horse or was he favored to win. Gladwell tells many tales in which the underdog faces obstacles they must overcome to succeed, but the underdog can’t always succeed. This is one of the flaws in Gladwell’s argument.

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1396 Words | 6 Pages

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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1165 Words | 5 Pages

Her argument goes on claiming how Facebook has made us more wary of real human confrontation, and how the network’s audience has become afraid of being caught in the act of avoiding confrontation. Mathias supports this when she uses the example of one of her friends losing it when she heard of a hacker application for Facebook that would expose who’s been searching who, making everyone know of a love interest she had been “stalking.” Mathias argues how we have managed to fear real interaction by cowering behind online. She concludes stating that Facebook is another form of

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915 Words | 4 Pages

n today’s society the internet plays a huge role in the everyday lives of many people, therefore many individuals’ main form of communication is over sites like Facebook, and twitter. In Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “Small Change, Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted,” he explores the different methods used by activists nowadays versus those used by the activists in the 1960s. Gladwell argues that social media is not an effective tool to initiate revolutionary movements or any change at all for that matter, based off its weak ties formed over different social networks. Gladwell illustrates multiple cases of protests and adds that without the assistance of social media, these protests were stronger, prearranged and based off deeper emotional ties. Throughout the article Gladwell continuously returns to the Civil rights movement and why it was effective.

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346 Words | 2 Pages

I chose the contemporary political cartoon for my visual analysis. The cartoon is portraying the sad reality of the generation gap between parents and their children in our current society. Today 's younger generations are obsessed with technology and the sense of connection it brings them.   As Gladwell brought to light in his "Small Change" essay, the current belief that social media brings a superior connection between people throughout the world is falsely based on the misunderstanding of strong-tie and weak-tie relationships.

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867 Words | 4 Pages

In addition, he expressed in passage 4 that, “they had fallen into the habit of considering their universe to be boring”(De Botton 61).These two quotes from the passage couple expressing as to why we as humans tend to be ignorant of almost anything. But, this is only because of the fact that we are shortfall of the endeavor when it comes to looking at something from a different light or perspective. Similarly, Gladwell seems to discern as if all types of social media are the foundation of weak bonds, because he himself has become habituated with components from the past. In “Small Change”, Gladwell discusses the cynical side of social media and how it has pivoted the way people affiliate with one another.

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959 Words | 4 Pages

People also stay connected and interact with one another, with their peers, people of similar interests, and even their family members. This helps strengthen their relationship even if they are busy with their daily routines. In addition, social media sites have become a platform for youth with similar interest or common discipline to get together, building connections and opportunities for their respective careers. Youth claims that social media not only makes their lives easier and efficient, it has become their lifestyle. While social media has seems to bring people together and help one another stay connected, it has created social isolation in regards to BBC News report.

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