Small Change

Small Change Throughout history there have been events that changed the history of this nation. Malcolm Gladwell starts out writing about a historic event at a restaurant that occurred in Greensboro, North Carolina. Four young black men walk into a restaurant and wanted to order some coffee. They did not serve the young black men. They proceeded to stay seated in this restaurant did not move. More and more people around the southeast began to imitate the actions that these young men created (312). This action created a revolutionary movement across the country and subsequently changed the war on racism in the 1960s. Gladwell states through his essay “Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted” how most people can become activists by completing simple actions with the ties they have with people that could forever change the world. Gladwell says that in the world that we are in right now, there is a tool that has reinvented how the people of the world can fight a big cause. It is the tool of social media, creating a new sense of social activism. He states social activism as an action that intentionally tries to bring a social change to an issue (314). It has been made easier to bring awareness and also have act upon an issue because of social media, such as: Twitter, Facebook, tumblr, etc. There are several movements around the world that are fighting to solve an issue and the use of these websites are able to congregate a large community to engage in conversation about the topic. Gladwell explains how the people interact with each other on social media and come together with people they may not know or have very little communication with and solve a problem. He refers to this type of partnership as “weak-ties”. The platforms of social media are built around weak-ties and could connect you to thousands of people who you haven’t ever met in your life. Sociologist Mark Granovetter says that having all of these “friends” on Facebook or a bunch of