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The role of social media in social movements
Impacts Of Social Media
Impacts Of Social Media
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Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram are essential parts of every individual in todays day and age. The article Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted declares that people do not need social media to unfurl peoples quarrels around a large group. for example when the students ordered sit ins during the war against segregation. The world now is not how it used to be in the past, were individuals did not have TV or computers to rely on for news. Malcolm Gladwell asserts that all of the new technology is unnecessary to keep people informed of a certain subjects. For example when Hitler was killing the jewish religion in Germany. Not only was that something of extreme importance, but if we did not have technology or social media could one have ever known about it. Malcolm makes comments about Facebook, MTV, and Google assuming that people could write whatever they want and consider it as news. Nevertheless if one ignores things that individuals alleges on the web and you think it’s a rip-off, could we be able to help anyone?. If little Johnny's mother decided to make a web page to help her son with all of the medical care for his cancer treatments, would you believe it or just ignore her and assume it’s just another swindle. If there was no social media could a lot of people even know that there is a young child out there who is dying because his family can not afford to pay all of the procedures the hospital performs. Another case that Malcolm relates to in the article is how dangerous people like Al Qaeda are left stuck in Web 101 because the internet is now about interactivity and conversation. Terrorist are left in the dust when it come to new social media. Think about it, would we even know that there are people like Al Qaeda and Osam... ... middle of paper ... ... to campaigns against segregation. That is why I disagree with Malcolm's assertions. The true question is WHY DOES IT MATTER?. It matters since people these day think that hitting a like button will change the globe we live in. Rather than taking action and gathering a group of people with the same interest to raid the roads with flyers and poster in addition to make a change. Our society has become too lazy with backing up the laws we are against or that seem unfair. Honestly what is a tweet going to do but just get likes and retweets for popularity. Take action Americans and fight with the pride and honor our founding fathers fought with to give us the rights we now enforce with a passion. Most important make sure we use the tools we have today, but also take action and hit someone in the face (not literally) in order to protect equality and the future generations.
...ernment as much as the rest of the world does. Gladwell's pointing out that social media is widening the gap between extremes, a true activist and what I'd call true apathy. Our generation, along with those to follow are going to be middle of the road mouse clickers with the disillusion our "like" (in facebook terms) will have a true impact. The real problem with Gladwell's argument is that he is looking at it through an American perspective, the connections we form here in the US on facebook and twitter are indeed superficial because we have so many other ways to connect with people. In many other places around the world, social networking sites, are the only place they have in which they can freely connect with each other. And those connections are not superficial, those connection helped launch uprisings such as the ones in Tunisia and Egypt.
They will use tactics to keep people coming back to their websites, and there is nothing wrong with that as long as we are aware of these Megaphonic tendencies. Just like in Saunders’ essay, there is a dumbing down in social media as well. Social media can be very stimulating too, so we need to be aware of the time we spend when using it. All the things we see and hear can give us a skewed perception of what is going on in the world; it’s hard to say the things we see and hear are even true. Saunders said that the enemy here is us, so if we are going to use these social media websites, then we should use them as tools instead of a braindead playground. We should quit wasting our time with those loud obnoxious megaphones and turn ours down. Switch the intelligence of our megaphones to high and use these social media websites in a positive manner. The best type of social media wouldn’t be a specific one, but one that can be beneficial for us one way or
Perez, Sarah. "Tipping Point Author Malcolm Gladwell Says Facebook, Twitter Won't Lead to Social Change." ReadWrite.com. ReadWrite, 4 Oct. 2010. Web. 27 Feb. 2014.
“Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell is an essay that describes how technology has changed social movements. “Is Google Making us Stupid?” by Nicholas Carr is an essay that describes how technology has made people have declining cognitive abilities. Both of these articles are about how people are using technology to accomplish tasks and goals they set to achieve. In my essay I’m going to compare the two essays and see where they excel and where they fail to expand their essay. Gladwell discusses the difference of how people protest or raise support in today’s society compared to how people did this before Facebook or the internet.
Malcolm Gladwell, a published author and staffed writer for The New Yorker since 1996, argues in his article “Small Change” that social media will not have a great impact on social change, and might even be demolishing the necessary tools that high-action activism has always been reliant on. Gladwell attempts to speak out to warn our current technological society, specifically to the young adults who frequent social media more than other ages. Gladwell highlights an event from 1960 when four college women from North Carolina A. & T. were denied service because of their race, and turned to protest as they sat at the lunch counter, refusing to move. The movement of sit-ins spread and grew until eventually seventy thousand students across the South were united in protest, without the use of technological communication. He focuses on the idea that this protest, like many others before the use of social media, was formed on the idea of strong bonds between real friendships, and not just loose relationships between acquaintances. But if we were to combine the key concepts Gladwell highlights that are needed within protests
Technology has had a negative impact on this generation- we have lost and forgotten many things because of it. In Malcolm Gladwell’s “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted”, he discusses the difference between social media activism and “real” activism and the loss of human connection that he has identified. He believes that with social media activism, we lack the connections a community should have because we don’t get together in person- we are satisfied with being connected through technology. He also thinks that as time goes on, we will only get worse when referring to the ideas that we are delusional because the issues we fight about (such as getting phones taken away) aren’t as important as we think.
In conclusion, Carr and Gladwell’s essays have proven that the internet positive effects are outweighed by its negative effects. Carr has found he is unable to finish a full text anymore or concentrate. He thinks that the internet has taken our natural intelligence and turned it into artificial intelligence. Gladwell discusses how nowadays, social activism doesn’t have the same risk or impact as former revolutions such as the Civil Rights Movement. The internet is mostly based on weak ties based among people who do not truly know each other and would not risk their lives for their
As our world evolves, more and more people every day jump onto the social media train. Many people are advocates of social media because it helps them communicate. However, other people oppose the use of social media because they question its credibility. Social media’s credibility played a big role in the Boston bombing events that took place on April 15th, 2013. Two bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, killing three people and injuring over 200 others (Ziv). Thus, as herds of people were rushed to the hospital or evacuated, the manhunt for the criminal responsible went on for the rest of the week. As time went on, law enforcement identified the suspects as brothers—Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev. As the search narrowed
Gladwell strongly believes that activism was viewed in a much different way before technology took over the world. In the 1960’s protests, and boycotts spread rapidly but usually only among friends. Today, information spreads to thousands of people in seconds due to social media. Gladwell believes traditional activism formed strong-ties whereas today 's movements and protests form weak-ties because of social media. People are motivated when they have close friends with them in a movement, not just through a text message. As Gladwell states, “where activists were once defined by their causes, they are now defined by their tools.” (Gladwell 408) Gladwell believes these tools can’t really help a social activism movement, but he does acknowledge the speed of social media networks. But, without news and social media how will the information spread? Anything placed on the internet can be broadcasted to a large audience within seconds. Gladwell writes: “Social networks are effective at increasing participation—by lessening the level of motivation that participation requires.” (Gladwell 408) Gladwell makes a good point but how will the motivation ever be there without people receiving information? Nevertheless social media has many flaws, but with other tools
Social media has a variety of platforms, allowing individuals to freely articulate their opinions to a large audience. This tool has it’s benefits as people can join together to raise awareness to certain matters but there is also a cruel downside to the public use of social media. In Jon Ronson’s article, “How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life”, he distinctly reveals that the use of social media for debate/dissent/social and political change brings together a large audience to improve our society in difference to trolling, bullying and public shaming where there is an outstanding victim looked down upon through a widespread of individuals. These two differences stem from the belief of one that they are informing an individual of their wrong doing they are in fact leading on a greater attack than intended. The concept behind“social media is so perfectly designed to manipulate
In fact, now it is impossible for us to be separate from the social media since it plays a necessary role in our generation. We have to remind that it is not the fault of social media that sometimes it can be abused, but it is ours. We should not make a generation where a mom is too busy with chatting with friends on Facebook and cannot help her daughter with her homework, or one is spending all day stalking on his ex- girlfriend. [D23] That is too miserable. And yet, we should not just throw the social media away from here because Facebook and Youtube give us so much joyful moments of others and mine. We always should be conscious and cautious about how we use the social media and balance it well. That is all.
For example, in Saleem Kassim views, “As a result of the many technological advancements and innovations that have revolutionized how individuals communicate, an abundance of information has become available to everyone.” Saleem Kassim’s point is that anyone and everybody can put out information that can be seen by everyone when you are an internet user. For example, the news can tell you that there’s nothing happening in a certain country; whereas, someone from that country can post on twitter and upload videos showing anyone that decides to see the truth of what is really happening in their country. Kassim also states, “Ultimately, public information supplied by social networking websites has played an important role during modern-day activism, specifically as it pertains to the Arab Spring.” In other words, Kassim believes that digital communication has brought people together to fight for something that is a good cause. To have people aware of the truth and to have someone do something about it. Indeed it is highly likely that we bring people together for a good cause but digital communication can also cause a downside through having no censorship on what you post. When more people are brought up of current events trending they decide to hope on board to see if there is anything they can do to help. Not to mention, Graff and Birkenstein view it the same way. Like I mentioned earlier, Graff and
In mere minutes, any active user can access information and associations regarding various causes, such as the riots happening in Egypt and the Middle East. Teenagers, in the Middle East, used their Facebook accounts to campaign the “Day of Rage” in Saudi Arabia. Helping to set the Arab riots in motion, the event demanded elections, freedom for women, and the liberation of political prisoners. The activists’ goals to bring democracy to Egypt and removing Hosni Mubarak, Egypt’s fourth president from 1981 to 2011, still continue and perhaps with the assistance of Facebook they will accomplish these ambitions. The causes campaigned through Facebook have served as a fundraise...
Social media can be used in our days as a very helpful tool for many things in changing any person’s life ant attitude. It has a positive impact on the society level. These media will keep the person socially active and open to all what happened in the world. Sharing the latest news, photos, finding new friends and knowing the culture. Also, it allows for millions to keep in touch with each other and update for all the new technology. And, it helps people who have difficulties in communication with others to be more socialized and stronger and develop more confidence to feel more comfortable, protected and relaxed just sitting behind a screen. “It saved me time and money without ever requiring me to leave the house; it salvaged my social life, allowed me to conduct interviews as a reporter and kept a lifeline open to my far-flung extended family” says Leonard(231).
With the way the world is now it should not be a surprise to anyone that social media has literally taken over the world in this day and age. From late 2008 to early 2009 the size of Facebook users doubled from 100 million to 200 million in eight months, and was already up to 400 million by early 2010. Twitter also raised its number of users in 2009 from 4.5 million to 20 million (Zandt). These numbers just show what Facebook and Twitter have accomplished. Other social media sites that are getting more and more popular are Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr, Pinterest, and many others social media websites that people use on a daily basis. With one in four people using social media sites, such as Facebook and Twitter, it is no wonder that all of these social media websites are considered to be important (Whiteman). With a few clicks of a button or taps on a screen, a person can be connected to family and friends in every corner of the world. Social media can even allow people to see what their favorite celebrities are doing with their lives. According to Honor Whiteman,”Social media defines an array of internet sites that enable people from all over the world to interact. This can be through discussion, photos, video and audio (Whiteman).” Social media is a beast in its own right that is used by a multitude of people all over the world everyday for things such as updating their Twitter status for personal use to updating a company 's Facebook page on a weekly basis. Yes, there is no doubt about it, social media has done its share of very good things, but there is also an entire list of the negative things about using these websites that can really make a person question if they should even be on them. Af...