Lindsey Brown
Professor Daren Dean
English 2000
22 March 2013
You Cannot Ignore the Importance of Social Media According to Dictionary.reference.com, activism is the policy or action of using campaigning to bring about political or social change. A huge campaign that is well known across the world, the Civil Rights Movement, was brought about by Martin Luther King, Jr. King risked his life everyday to ensure justice and equality for the African American race. “Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell gives insight on how activism is more effective than social media, especially from one scenario at the Woolworth’s lunch counter in Greensboro, North Carolina. Gladwell points out his strong belief of what activism can do for a society rather …show more content…

A single central authority does not control the rules and procedures of Facebook and other social networking sites. This presents an issue because successful decisions are made through a consensus from an organizational group. Thus the subject of not having a hierarchy on social networks bonds people to a group are loose due to the variety of people and the social connection rather than physically coming together for a group meeting to receive important information and to make decisions. One of the arguments raised regarding social media goals without a centralized leadership structure was that the people associated with the networks cannot think strategically which in turn are prone to conflict and error. Gladwell further stated that social media makes it easier for activists to express themselves, and harder for that expression to have any impact. While I do acknowledge all the issues that have been brought up against social media activists, the study of the social networks can be highly beneficial to society. Social media has unique characteristics of adapting to different peoples interest around the globe. Because of this technology gain it allows people to niche similar or opposing interests. In many cases social media has brought people together for the better and impacted the success rate of activists. In 2010, Digital U made a video “Social Activism” that