Like many things, the usefulness of social media falls on a spectrum. It is often first-handedly perceived that social media is a mindless aspect of technology which contains no real benefit. On the other hand, it is believed that “[social media] challenges traditional hierarchies” and provokes people to think about the issues going on around the world (Kessler 1). There have been many research studies conducted on the impact of social media, often leaving mixed reviews. Social media is a constant growing topic in America, and it is now spreading worldwide; in 2011, “Wikipedia provided users with 19 million articles from 91,000 contributors in over 200 languages” (Kressler 1). In the article, “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, Malcolm Gladwell highlights the effectiveness of personal contact in order to have a successful social activism protest. Gladwell is mistaken because he overlooks the positive aspects of social media and
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He completely neglects the fact that social media has provided an immense amount of information to people on a global scale that they otherwise would not be aware of, as well as, the successful revolutions that have sprouted from social media.
Gladwell addresses his main concern from the very beginning about how he believes social media has caused the common American “to have forgotten what activism is” (Gladwell 404). The author begins his article with an anecdote from 1960 about four black college students that decided to fight against the status quo of the Jim Crow “separate but equal” laws. These four black students sat in a coffee shop that was designated for white people only, and by the next day “the protest had grown to twenty-seven men and four women;” when several
He completely neglects the fact that social media has provided an immense amount of information to people on a global scale that they otherwise would not be aware of, as well as, the successful revolutions that have sprouted from social media.
Gladwell addresses his main concern from the very beginning about how he believes social media has caused the common American “to have forgotten what activism is” (Gladwell 404). The author begins his article with an anecdote from 1960 about four black college students that decided to fight against the status quo of the Jim Crow “separate but equal” laws. These four black students sat in a coffee shop that was designated for white people only, and by the next day “the protest had grown to twenty-seven men and four women;” when several