Gladwell Strikes Back

Over the weekend I took part in a two day seminar on Political Participation in downtown Indianapolis. One of the presenters talked extensively on the role that social media has played recently in political campaigns and revolutions all around the world. The speaker said, "In a few short years social media has gone from a new tool to, a necessary entity of any political campaign." The presenter then presented the case that Malcolm Gladwell talked about. The presenter while being a proponent of social media claimed that Gladwell was right, one needed a firm emotional commitment to any action or actually needed to be in the streets to consider their actions activism. He said that simply "liking" something or retweeting something did not justify activism.

As a well informed popular culture student I could have just sat in my chair quietly. Instead I raised my hand and told the presenter what Twitter co-creator Biz Stone had to say about activism. I explained that simply spreading information to our social circles is a form of new age activism. We do not have to go in the streets to begin to sway public opinion on the events of the world. The presenter agreed that this could be considered activism but, argued that Gladwell had defined traditional activism and merely liking something online did not meet these criteria. After another student raised her hand to support what I had to say and the argument was over. We agreed that a activism could come in all forms.

On the other hand, I listened to a Ted talk that I think relates well to this:



The thing that struck me about what Peter Diamandis said was that within the next ten years we will have an additional 1 billion people on the internet. He says that theses additional minds will be able to be used together to solve problems. With our new use of social networks we can effectively crowdsource large groups of people without them having to leave their homes. The more people that become aware of a problem via social media the closer we move to a solution. This counters Gladwell's arguments exactly; we do not need to be in the streets to be politically active. Point Stone.