Malcolm Gladwell Small Change Summary

We live in an era where social media is at its peak. Many people are of the opinion that social media has contributed to new age revolutions, however Malcolm Gladwell is one of the few who have contradicting ideas. In his article “Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted”, he argues that “social media can’t provide what social change has always required.” In his defense, he asserts that social media is a tool, not a cause of social change. He narrates with a number of examples, using protests from the past to support his arguments. Gladwell also talks about two phenomenon, strong-ties and weak-ties.

Gladwell appeals to the reader’s logos through his reference to historical facts where he begins to build his argument in a logical …show more content…
He shows how without media, word got around about the protest and other people joined in until it became a large protest that crossed state lines. He gives several other accounts of events that occurred in the past which caused a societal change without the social media. The logic he puts across tells the reader that if world known revolutions could take place and result in a positive social change, what shows that history cannot repeat itself? As he builds the readers confidence with all these historical facts, he makes references to discredit the entire social media aspect of the Moldova twitter revolution. He considers social media activists in two distinct groups-networks and hierarchies. The networks, he describes as an operational tool that is used in disseminating their information across continents such as Facebook. He also mentions how the social media use for such activities disrupt the solid hierarchical structure which filters out information appropriately. Throughout his article, he expresses a tone …show more content…
Through his use of specific dates, and citations from different sources, it shows that he has an in depth knowledge about the subject of discussion. This clear show of ethos in the text undoubtingly proves that he is well informed about his topic and appeals to his audience to reason with him. He opens the eyes of the readers to see the how, for instance, the car companies’ employs networking platforms to connect with their clients, and not for manufacturing purposes. If this is true, then how can activists use the social network as a primary voice? In other words, the social media can be used to connect with other people with like minds but not a primary