Malcolm Gladwell Small Change Analysis

Many are saying that social media is the new platform for large-scale change. Campaigns are turning towards social media, such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, to gain support for their causes. Not only are companies and larger organizations using social networking sites (SNS) to promote change, but also everyday citizens are sharing their personal stories to motivate people to take action. But, is social media actually a strong platform for activism? Author Malcolm Gladwell, doesn’t think so. In Gladwell’s paper Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted, he argues that social media does not result in large-scale change. Instead of promoting change social media promotes participation (Gladwell, 2015). Many other writers agree,
calling social media campaigns “slactivism,” rather than activism (Lim, 2013). On the other side Merlyna Lim presents, a middle ground approach to the argument. She acknowledges that a large amount of social media campaigns get lost in the clutter of information available on SNS, but presents the criteria that must be included in a campaign for it to be successful. She uses several examples of successful and failed social media campaigns in Indonesia as evidence (Lim, 2013). These author’s argume similar points, but come to vastly different conclusions. This differing of opinion comes from their differing definition of activism. Social media can be a form of activism. Social media can be a driving force in motivating people to make change. Part of the reasons for the differences of opinion between Gladwell and Lim, on social media’s role in activism, is their definitions of activism are different.
Gladwell uses the example of four African American college students that started a sit-in in 1960 to protest segregation. He uses this example to show that social media doesn’t accomplish the same affect, that traditional methods of activism does. His definition of activism, is based on the idea that a high degree of risk is associated with it, and that it contributes to a large scale change. He also focuses on examples of activism that is more political, suggesting that he is ignoring the more social nature activism can take. The issue with Gladwell’s argument is that his definition of activism is flawed. While Lim’s definition of activism is more realistic, it is also flawed. Her idea of activism is too broad, and encompasses actions of awareness, and support as
activism. There is disagreement among author’s as to what the right definition of activism truly is. Oxford’s English dictionary defines activism as “The policy or action of using vigorous campaigning to bring about political or social change” (citation). Martin believes that activism is “everyday actions by individuals that foster new social networks or power dynamics,” she justifies this by discussing “how small acts transform social relations in ways that have the potential to foster social change” (Martin, 2007). Neither of these definitions discusses the degree of risk needed to be associated with actions, but they both emphasize that the goal of activism is change. The critical component of activism is that the purpose of one’s actions is to create change. Another important dimension to activism is intention. The intent to create change is important when defining activism. The outcome of activism isn’t as important as the intent. Not every activism campaign is successful. The degree, to which a campaign succeeds or fails, shouldn’t be a factor in it being defined as activism. The creation of change, suggests that someone is opposing the change. Activism isn’t a one-sided issue, and involves there being an opposing force. Opposing forces don’t always have to be large volumes of people, and doesn’t mean that Another important distinction when discussing activism is the difference between activism and awareness, and what role awareness has in activism, if any at all. Awareness is not a form of activism in itself, but it is often a preliminary step in activism campaign. People need to be aware that a problem exists, before they can feel passionate about trying to change it. Social media is a great platform to increase awareness. Awareness is more easily achieved than activism, because it asks very little users. Another piece that is sometimes related to awareness and activism is support. Support often takes the form of donating money, or liking a Facebook page. Support can also play a role in activism. Putting money towards an activism campaign can help them to accomplish their larger goals. However support is only a part of activism, when what they’re supporting is a campaign that is trying to make a change. This is very similar to the idea that Gladwell suggests that social media increases participation, but not activism (Gladwell, 2014). While awareness, support, and participation are important, and can be related to activism, they’re not a form of activism. In summary activism is actions that intend to create change, can be social or political in nature, and often contain an awareness element. In Lim’s article she discusses the necessary components of successful social media campaigns. One of the components is that the issue that you’re promoting change, over social media, can’t be one that is too controversial. However to meet the definition of activism discussed earlier, it still must have an opposing side to be considered activism. It also can’t pose too much of a risk. Gladwell suggests in his article that activism comes with a high degree of risk. This is one of the reasons he doesn’t think activism can be achieved over social media – because he doesn’t believe that it contains a high degree of risk. Based on our definition of activism doesn’t have to require risk. However social media can be associated with a degree of risk. Youth take a lot of pride in their social media accounts. How they’re perceived on the internet, is almost as important to them as how they’re perceived in person. Youth spend a lot of time thinking about everything they post on social media, because they fear judgment from their peers. While this may not seem like a huge risk to some people, it can be to youth. Self-image is very important to people in this age group, and judgment and disapproval from peers can be devastating to their self-esteem. For the same reason that youth don’t want to participate in activism on social media, is the same reason that they do. Judgment from peers, also leads to the pressure to conform. Lim discusses how SNS are based off “radical transparency” (Lim, 2013). This is the concept that SNS force their users to be transparent, and this transparency leads to conformity. This is related to the argument against social media that Gladwell presents, of strong and weak ties. He argues that strong ties, are what encourage people to join in activism, and strong ties can’t exist on SNS (Gladwell, 2014). This is related to the argument that Lim makes about conformity. With weak tie relationships there is more pressure to conform and a higher chance that one might be judged. In relation to social media activism campaigns this means, that if a lot of other users are participating in a campaign one feel pressure to also participate. There have been two campaigns that have recently gone viral via the Internet: the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and the Pray for Paris campaign. While these are good examples of successful campaigns on social media, they’re not examples of activism, even though at first glance they might appear to be. The ALS campaign is an awareness campaign. The focus of the campaign was to spread awareness to the general population about a topic that people in general knew little about, and to increase funds for research. They were not trying to create change, and there is no opposing force. There is no side to the issue that is fighting back against the public being aware that this disease exists. It is for the most part, uncontested. The Pray for Paris campaign is another example of a campaign that isn’t activism. The goal of this campaign was to show support for Paris during an extremely difficult time for this city. This campaign was not calling for change, but a way for people around the world to show that they were sending thoughts and prayers their way. Although these campaigns aren’t activism they are good examples of why social media campaigns can be successful. They both use the concept of radical transparency and weak ties, to encourage people to join the movements. During the Pray for Paris campaign many people changed their profile picture so it had an overlay of France’s flag. So many people participated in this campaign, that not joining in appeared to show a lack of care for the suffering other’s were facing during this traumatic event. These campaigns also follow many of the other guidelines Lim outlined such as light package, headline appetite, and trailer vision. This is why these campaigns were able to be so succesfull. The Bell Let’s Talk Campaign is an example of a successful activism campaign over social media.
This campaign asks users of social media to make posts on various SNS with positive messages about mental health and illness, and use the hashtag #bellletstalk. The goal of this campaign is to end the stigma surrounding mental health. The campaign is looking to change people’s attitude towards mental illness. This campaign increases awareness, and creates change simultaneously. The change Bell is trying to create is harder to recognize because they are not lobbying for change against a policy or government organization. This is an example of a way that a campaign can be more social nature. This campaign is also a good example of campaign that meets all the criteria for the definition of activism, and is successful repeatedly on social
media. Contrary to what Gladwell believes activism can be achieved through social media. However it is hard to be successful when trying to achieve activism solely though SNS, as Lim discusses in her article. It is important when looking at campaigns on social media, that you are able to distinguish awareness, from activism campaigns. Social media can be a really effective way to promote change, when used appropriately. We can see this everyday when browsing through the amount of content on social media that is promoting change, and how much of it has actually been successful.