In this book, Bradford Martin an associate professor of history at Bryant University in Rhode Island, illuminates a different 1980s than many remember—one whose history has been buried under the celebratory narrative of conservative dominant power. Written as a social history, The Other Eighties offers an ambitious revision of the decade, one that emphasizes the vitality of grassroots and creative dissent. Marginalized from mainstream politics by conservative electoral victories and the Democratic Party’s concurrent retreat from the ‘full-throated progressive idealism’ (p. xi) of the New Deal and the War on Poverty, leftist politics in the 1980s nonetheless remained animated in grassroots settings. The book is organized into eight concise chapters, each examining a separate movement, including the campaign against nuclear proliferation, the Central American Solidarity Movement, activism to halt US complicity with South African apartheid, popular culture and the ‘culture wars’, the politics of post-punk music, African-American politics and…
Malcolm Gladwell's article, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted,” is a rhetorically successful argument that depicts why social media is not an effective tool in organizing social or political activism. Social media was just rising in popularity and worldly politics were tense at the time, so Gladwell had a wide audience of readers. In his article, Gladwell describes multiple examples of protests that had no means of social media during these events. Consequently, these protests tended to be more stronger, organized, and more emotional to the people that participated. He begins his article with a description of the Greensboro sit-ins of how a group of four college students grew to almost seventy thousand all “without email,…
Gladwell defines activism as either being strong tie or weak tie. He describes strong tie as being heretical and unified. If someone messes up it could cause the whole matter to go wrong. People with strong ties though are more likely to stick through and not give up because the issue affects them directly. While low-risk activism is defined as a network that everyone has an equal say in.…
The Views of Gladwell and Baron In Dennis Baron and Malcolm Gladwell’s writings, they are both discussing the use of social media. In Baron’s essay “Reforming Egypt in 140 Characters?”, he claims that although social media is popular in the world of revolution, revolution can indeed happen without it. He uses information about governments arresting individuals and preventing revolutions from taking place by using social media to maintain control of the people of the country. Gladwell similarly expresses how social media is not necessary through his article, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”. In the reading he discusses how although social media is useful things like weak ties, government laws and miscommunication make it possible for more mistakes that would not have happened without using social…
Writer, Malcolm Gladwell, in his essay, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted,” acknowledges that social media has changed the way people protest. According to Gladwell,“Fifty years after one of the most extraordinary episodes of social upheaval in American history, we seem to have forgotten what activism is” (172). We believe we can be activists online, but that is not the truth. Gladwell’s purpose is to point out that without social media we can accomplish way more. He analyzes the opinion of journalists who claim that social media is the ‘new activism.’…
Malcolm Gladwell the author of “Small Change” Why the Revolution Will Not Be Retweeted. Educates readers about Civil Rights movement events from the past, and the effects of social media in today’s time. Technology has evolved over the years, giving birth to social media. Social media is wonderful for a lot of things, but is social media an effective resource for activism?…
To define the difference between “strong tie activism” and “weak tie activism,” “Small Change” is an essay written by Canadian journalist Malcolm Gladwell, which targets several breaches that modern social media activism possesses to this day. Gladwell commences his essay by describing how a protest occurred at a campus in the University of North Carolina after four college students were denied a cup of coffee because of their race, where several of the students’ friends gathered with them to protest. This protest is categorized as “high-risk activism” because many of the protestors had a personal connection with the students and they committed actions that put them in a risky situation. This is also known as strong ties. Gladwell then writes:…
In this video, Mr. Gladwell talks about the essential basics of choice and happiness and the need for success. He speaks about a psychophysicist name Howard Moskowitz’s experimental discovery on food and happiness. Mr. Moskowitz realized after several trial and errors with Pepsi and Cola experiments, people who participating in the studies did know what they liked about food in general. However, when the participants were asked to rate bowls of spaghetti sauce with each bowl containing different ingredients, and collected and analyzed the data, he found a trend in each variable.…
The strength of Gladwell book is the collection of stories about the nature of specifically American success. One of the key implications that readers would get from the stories is when the opportunity presents itself, seize it and this implication stands as the strength of the book. In the book, he emphasized the importance of cultural heritage, parents’ attitudes, and behaviors towards success. He says that greatness requires enormous time, using the source of The Beatles’ musical talents and Gates’ computer savvy as the example. This illustrates the 10,000-Hour Rule.…
Successful writer, Malcolm Gladwell in his book, argues that on human being can’t be successful on his own, it often happens by opportunity. He supports this claim by first using examples to state the time and effort you need to put in. Then, Gladwell uses anecdotes and stories of people’s success. Next, Gladwell goes on to talk about people’s cultural background. Finally, he uses a personal story to tie the book all together.…
Has social media truly impacted activism? This is a question Malcolm Gladwell answers In his article, “Small Changes”. Gladwell pushes back the notion that social media has helped us become better organizers of protests than we’ve been before and that sites such as twitter are accountable for the surges of uprisings we’ve been experiencing. The core of his argument is that internet activism, while having reinvented social activism, is inefficient in regards to challenging the status quo, and I concur. The article begins with an anecdote, which Malcolm Gladwell consistently returns to discuss.…
Furthermore, built on weak ties, strong ties bond students from different backgrounds together. Nathan uses Greek organizations as an example and explores the effects that strong ties bring about. She states, “They are only illustrative of what one university president saw as ‘a great deal of ‘orbital energy’ among the many subgroups, a magnetism that tugs at these groups, pulling them away from any common agenda’”(Nathan 318). Greek life is merely an illustration of how strong-tie subgroups isolate students and cut them off from other groups. The phrase “common agenda” refers to “the mainstream life of the university”(Nathan 318), and the word “magnetism” means the repulsive forces between different groups.…
When writing a work of literature, it is important to determine an audience in which the book is intended for. Whether it be by gender, age, religion, or race, it is important to target a group of people because it gives the work of literature an aim. In protest literature, the audience is often either the oppressors or the oppressed. Sometimes is may be a mix of both, however there is a main target in which there is a goal to achieve with the audience; whether it be to inform them or to influence them. There are many examples through many works of protest literature, each differing in their strategy and efforts to achieve their goal among their Audience.…
However, social media has revived the forms of social activism by spreading messages at a faster rate and joining different political views easily through hashtags or public posts. Malcolm Gladwell’s essay, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, tells a story about four college students and their social activism. The four college students went out to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant in Greensboro, North Carolina. As one of the four students started ordering, the waitress said, “We don’t serve Negroes here” (Gladwell, 399). This response lead to a political protest outside the restaurant.…
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.…