Sterling. Thesis

In "Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted," Malcolm Gladwell addresses activism through social media. Specifically, he argues that social media activism that has become popular as of late is not capable of forging the strong ties that are necessary for real social change. In order to illustrate this point he compares Facebook and Twitter campaigns to the campaigns of the Civil Roghts Era of the 60s. This is especially powerful as it shows how much was at stake then and how united and involved the activists were. In comparison, many of the modern examples involving social media reveal that individuals are risking little and are actually having a fairly insignificant impact, made significant in their own mind and amongst their peers. Gladwell's thesis sets out to show that real social change is a result of risk and unity, and is not accomplished by millions of uninformed westerners tweeting about events they know little about in a country with few Twitter users.