Gladwell Social Media

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Why the revolution will not be tweeted is a compelling argumentative article by Malcolm Gladwell. In it he states all the reasons why social media is not helping our world like people think it is. The civil rights movement was often described as a fever, people had a personal reason for change, there was risk, but what they were doing would impact their entire world. With social media, it is difficult to create the fever in people that is necessary to generate an impact on society. In the article there is constant mention of “strong-ties” and during the civil rights movement that is what they had. They had an intimate bond with the movement that is not possible to create with social media. These connections helped them through difficult times. …show more content…
Real world connections can lead to much needed change. Social media can lead to questionable activity. While social media is not the best way to implement change; it does have its usefulness.

In the article Gladwell uses the examples of the civil rights movement and someone losing their phone. While he did pick these two specifically for their contrast he also brings up other recent protests. The civil rights movement took place completely without social media and it was effective. Protests sprung up and people, yet again, did not use social media. For these protests people need to care on a bigger scale than just themselves. It affects everyone and that is why people partake in them.

On the opposite side of the spectrum, someone lost their phone and used social media to get it back. This was just one person trying to make their life easier and it led to some gray areas. People were united on this and since no one was telling them what the can and cannot do, they stalked some teenage girl. Someone found out her address and drove by her house and eventually the girl got arrested. While she should have given it back when she had the chance there is no reason why it should have gone that far. That is a problem with social media, people have a hard time staying in socially acceptable parameters. They think the rules do not apply to them simply because they are on the internet. It is difficult to keep everyone under control without a

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