Small Change: Why the revolution will not be tweeted by Malcom Gladwell
New tools of social media have reinvented social activism so that traditional relationships between political authority and popular will have been upended, making it easier for the powerless to collaborate, coordinate, and give voice to their concerns.
1st Example- “Twitter Revolution” but it wasn’t really an accurate revolution of the country. Spring 2009, against Communist government of Moldova.
*Internet is now about interactivity and conversation
False consciousness about the past infers that communication has no history prior to these new media.
We have forgotten what activism really is:
- highly, committed, articulate supporters of the goals & values as well as having a personal connection to the movement.
“Strong-Tie” Phenomenon of High-risk activism: critical friends meaning the more friends you had who were critical of the regime the more likely you were to join the protest.
However, Social Media activism isn’t associated with these strong ties since Social Media platforms are built around weak ties:
- Twitter: following people never met
- Facebook: efficiently managing your acquaintances so keeping up with people you would not otherwise be able to stay in touch with.
Weak Ties: acquaintances who have become the greatest source of new ideas and information, therefore there is strength in this system but the Internet lets us exploit the powers of these kinds of distant connections with efficiency.
Only way to get help through Social Media is by not asking too much of followers / friends.
Social Networks as Networks:
- effective at increasing participation by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires
- Social media become the tools for building networks which are opposite in structure and character of hierarchies
- not controlled by a single central authority – no centralized leadership and clear lines of authority so there is difficulty reaching consensus & setting goals
- resilient and adaptable in low-risk situations
- can’t think strategically
- chronically prone to conflict and error
- messy – ceaseless patter of correction and revision, amendment and debate
*Social Media cannot provide discipline and strategy.
Shirky: demonstrate organizing power of Internet – Evan’s email story illustrates “the ease and speed with which a group can be mobilized for the right kind of cause in the Internet age.”
Shifts energies from organizations that promote strategic and disciplined activity toward those which promote resilience and adaptability.
Social Media instruments are well suited to making existing social order more efficient – not enemy of status quo.
Discussion Questions:
- Have you ever participated in any sort of social media activism?
- What do you think is the weakest aspect of using social platforms as gaining power for movements?
- Do you think your Facebook friends & Twitter followers are weak ties? What really constitutes a strong ties? Are those strong ties going to be the people who follow and support your cause?
agamberg, and 7 others are discussing. 
NEW MEDIA RESEARCH STUDIO 
robtayl 6:24 pm on March 9, 2013 Permalink |
1.) I was trying to think of social media activism I’ve been a part of, and aside from liking the occasional “cause” fan-page a friend starts, that’s about all, and I don’t even really consider it activism. It’s interesting, I thought of an online petition I signed the other day supporting LGBT rights at a southern university, and all I had to do was write my name, which is a perfect example of what Gladwell says… social media caused me to participate, but I wouldn’t have flown down south or been a part of a sit-in.
2.) I think we all get caught up in the numbers too much… for example, I liked a page for a “support clean water” cause, but I likely won’t donate to it. If the majority of the fans of the page are like me, how valuable is the page, really? Even if you’ve got 10,000 likes because the organizers have spammed their friend lists, it may not actually solicit that many donations.
3.) I absolutely think my Facebook friends and Twitter followers are weak ties. When I think “friend,” i think of about five or so real life people. When I think of people that I could get to follow and support a cause of mine, I can come up with maybe twenty to thirty, and that’s if I could come up with a really good cause. I think strong ties are the product of time. We develop strong ties by being in a person’s presence for large amounts of time (so I do feel that digital presence can count for that). Since we’re in college, most of the people we’ve met have all been in the past couple years, so we really haven’t had that much time to develop close ties (when compared to family members, or childhood friends).
asdufresne 9:35 am on March 10, 2013 Permalink |
1. As a member of PETA I’m always retweeting or sharing updates and asking people to sign petitions to save this animal or the next. Social Media always me to connect to a much larger audience, that I probably wouldn’t have been able to reach on my own. All it takes is that one petition to touch someones heart and they share it with their friends and followers.
3. I think how you use your social media sites determines the type of ties you have. For example, if you use it for work or just to have a higher number of friends and followers then I’m sure those ties are weaker. If however, you only add people you know and are close to then those ties would be stronger. I’m reaching a point where I only follow a few celebrities and friends on my Twitter and Instagram but I am in the process of deleting all my random friends on Facebook.
besozzik 2:13 pm on March 10, 2013 Permalink |
I cannot say that I have ever really participated with any kind of social movement via Twitter or Facebook. I think that people place too much value on the power of a “like” or retweet. When I see someone post about a charity or movement I like it, but it takes seconds to perform both of these acts and in reality that is how much time the average person is thinking about the message. There is no doubting that social media can connect a larger audience, but the level of commitment of each of these people is far from equal.
My Facebook friends and Twitter followers are definitely weak ties. I would consider my closets friends to be about five people, not including family. Although I have over 300 friends on Facebook, I think you could look at my Facebook wall and realize the people that are closest to me. There are only a handful of people that I actually interact with and the same five people are the one’s posting on my wall.
Ryan P. 8:27 pm on March 10, 2013 Permalink |
1) I personally have not participated in any form of social media activism, simply because I feel that I am just not educated enough in many of the forms of activisms that take place on Twitter or Facebook. It’s not that I do not care about it, it’s just I don’t feel comfortable supporting something that I’m not completely sure about.
2) I feel that the weakest thing about using social platforms as gaining power for movement is the fact that many people underestimate the amount of “lazy” activism that takes place. Many people will just retweet a social activism hashtag but not take proper actions in doing anything else. What is a retweet going to do if you’re just sitting on your butts all day yelling at your mobile phone or laptop. Social media activism is a good start, but the individuals need to do more in order for it to have an effect.
3) Facebook friends and Twitter followers are absolutely weak ties. A strong tie is definitely something that doesn’t require a certain amount of number of likes or retweets or favorites. A strong tie is simply how one person views another person and if they’re real friends in person and not online. Sure your best friend can also be best friends with you online, but it’s not a requirement.
freitasca 9:51 pm on March 10, 2013 Permalink |
I think the only time I participated in social media activism was a few years ago on Facebook during Breast Cancer Awareness month. All the women were posting their status as what color bra they were wearing that day, but would only put the name of the color as their status. Those who did not get the private message about updating your status, at first had no idea what was going on. But word got out fast that it was for Breast Cancer Awareness, but I have not participated in anything since.
I think the weakest aspect of using social platforms for gaining power in movements is that you have the people that don’t really care about the cause. Nowadays it is so easy to “like” a page or sign up for emails to donate or get more information. While it may be a good way to gain interest, the actual input and effort that people have to put in to really support a cause is not there.
I would consider most of my Facebook friends and Twitter followers weak ties. While I do not have an outrageous number of friends on Facebook, many of them are still those from high school or classes that you meet in passing, and don’t really have a relationship with today. I would consider a strong tie someone that you would not be afraid to call out of the blue and have a conversation or ask a favor. A strong tie is someone that you have really developed and maintained a relationship over the years off, and on, social media sites. And yes, those strong ties would be the first people to support my cause, because the really know who I am and why I am supporting or trying to get support for something. However, I do think that some of my weak ties would also support my cause, simply because they want to feel included and they are all about how many causes they have “liked” or because maybe they really do have some type of connection to my cause that I am unaware of because we are weak ties. But yes, my strong ties would definitely support my cause before my weak ties.
roookej11 9:31 am on March 11, 2013 Permalink |
I have never participated in any type of social media activism. I did however, spread the news of Kony 2012 when that whole video went viral but my activism did not go any further than that so I wouldn’t really consider myself a contributor to that. I think that there are very few things that I would promote or support on social media. If I feel very passionately about something I think I would take it somewhere else other than Facebook or Twitter simply because I don’t personally believe they are effective.
I’d say that the weakest aspect is that of the limited people who are seeing it, most of them will just scroll past, and not even read what it is you’re spreading. There is also the problem of a lack leadership and strategy as the articles suggest which would definitely happen if the cause were to gain more awareness. I would also be worried about loyalty among users as it would be difficult to measure just how committed they are to it.
I’d say that my Facebook and Twitter friends are definitely more weak ties. This is made apparent in simple things like updating a status and only getting 20 something likes out of about 900 friends. Clearly there is a huge amount of people who don’t really care what it is I have to say, even if it is for a cause. Strong ties for me are people whose phone numbers I have because it means that I have a more direct way of communicating with them and the likelihood of hearing back from them is higher. Those are the people who I would turn to if I needed something to be spread.
napuah 9:37 am on March 11, 2013 Permalink |
1.) I don’t think I’ve participated in any sort of social media activism? Not in this sense, anyway. I did participate in a walk out during high school that was spread via text message? I’m not sure how much that counts as social media, though. I have signed online petitions, but nothing too crazy.
2.) The article brought up interesting points when talking about weak vs strong ties and its effect on the movement. I think that even though the use of social media in social protest or revolutionary activism is good to spread the word, it also attracts fair-weather support, or people who will only sign the petition but not do anything about it save for an angry tumblr post or something. Not only can this give the movement a false sense of support, but weaker ties to the core of the group can also lead to skewed interpretations of the purpose. Just think about the occupy movement. The main reason it failed was because no one really understood exactly what the point was. There was no central mission statement, but so many people hopped on in different parts of the country that each movement had a different meaning, giving it less continuity and therefore less credibility.
3.) I definitely think I have keep weak ties on Facebook and Twitter. I’m trying to narrow down my Facebook friend base but twitter anyone can follow me and I can follow anyone, so these people have no loyalty to me or any of my causes if I had them. I’m not even sure people I consider strong ties would support my causes. I think you can use Facebook and Twitter to find people who will support you, based on values, ideals, etc. but it probably won’t be the random people who follow me. Targeting specific audiences is the way to get support on social media sites, I think.
agamberg 9:50 am on March 11, 2013 Permalink |
1. The only instance I can think of as “social media activism” would be what Jamie mentioned (the Kony 2012 movement). The reason I put it in quotes, is because I do not actually consider this doing anything. It is funny, even before this class, I had read articles on that movement declaring it as fake activism. There is something to be said about spreading news about organizations through this media, however often actually lacks the ‘active’ aspect of it. Like Rob, I have liked organization pages, however do not think that I would actually go out of my way to physically participate if it meant driving somewhere to rally.
2. Again, I completely agree with Rob on this. To go along with our discussion of the like economy / power of a Facebook like, I really do feel we read to much into the numbers. It seems almost as just an ego boost for the company/org. to say ‘we have this many people interested/interacting with our cause’. However, how do we really measure/translate how affective this really is. I tend to lean more to the side of little to no effect, as mentioned above, from personal experience.
3. I think for the most part I would consider Facebook friends / twitter followers weak ties. I have tried for the most part, delete friends on Facebook that I did not feel close enough that I could walk up and have a normal conversation. However, like others, I would only consider my strong-tied friends to be much smaller, somewhere probably in the 50 person range. I have tried to unify friends through facebook for a couple causes (one being a charity walk for the big sisters association I was working on for my past co-op). With only a handful of my friends (who I invited about 200 of) actually showing up and participating, it was evident some of those ties were not as strong as I thought. However, as mentioned, I think from an educational standpoint social media is a great tool, however we need to find ways to effectively translate that into real activism.
Samantha Caro 10:44 am on March 11, 2013 Permalink |
I have occasionally taken part in minor social activism on Facebook. In the past, there have been specific statuses that I have reposted about breast cancer and the importance of voting in the most recent election. Though I don’t think it’s necessarily the most effective way to spread the word regarding important social movements, it’s still a good way to get involved in certain things you are interested in.
mlubin37 9:52 pm on March 12, 2013 Permalink |
I think it’s impossible to classify all of my Facebook friends as either weak or strong ties. While many probably believe all of their friends online are weak ties, I disagree. Many of the ties I have on Facebook are actually strong ties, in my mind. The reason for this is that I feel as though most of my Facebook friends were my friends in real life, before on social media. The majority of my Facebook friends would back me if I started a social movement, and I would do the same for them. Although it depends on the movement, I honestly believe that – me being a social person – have a somewhat “real” relationship with most of these people. If I don’t know someone well, I don’t friend them on Facebook. Until I establish some sort of a relationship with a person, I don’t have any desire to be friend with them on Facebook. I like to become close with my friends in real life as well, but maybe that’s just me.