Rhetorical Analysis Of Small Change By Malcolm Gladwell

The Illusion of Revolution Malcolm Gladwell, a best-selling author, in his essay "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted" critiques the use of social media as a tool in organizing social and political activism. His purpose is to argue that social media is ineffective in creating real change. He creates an informative tone and uses allusions to convince readers that social media is not as dangerous to the status quo as many are lead to believe. In the beginning of his essay, Gladwell alludes to the sit-in movement in Greensboro, North Carolina. The movement spread from just four young black college student to about seventy thousand students across the South. Gladwell stresses that these sit-ins occurred "without e-mail, texting, Facebook, or Twitter" (413). He then emphasizes that social media has "reinvented," not rekindled, social activism. This diction choice leads readers to believe that the focus of his essay will be on the ineffectiveness of social media as a tool in high-risk activism. He acknowledges the opposition by stating that the "Twitter Revolution" made the people of Iran feel "empowered and confident to …show more content…
In order to poke fun at the ineffectiveness of social media in high-risk situations, Gladwell reduces the story into "Wall Streeters [getting] their phones back from teenage girls" (421). He ends with the sarcastic line "Viva la revolución," forcing readers that disagree with his claims feel childish (421). In "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted," Gladwell uses an informative tone to educate readers on social media false platform for large scale social and political activism, due to its foundation on loose ties and lack of central authority. His message causes readers to understand that social media helps people develop awareness on situations by creating the illusion of