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Corey Cagle
Mr. Cloyd
AP Language and Comp.
12-9-14
Social Media Leads to Activism Destruction
Hopefully you will like this paper and make it one of your favorites. Retweeting it
might make you famous.
The majority of people in western culture have begun to base their actions strictly on the
power of a like, rather than through the true meaning of activism. In Malcolm Gladwells
Small Change: Why The Revolution Will Not Be Tweeted, Gladwell effectively displays the
use of tone, diction, syntax, and imagery in a professional-like style, to analyze how even though
more people are involved in revolutionary topics, social media has caused us to rely more on the
amount of likes and retweets we get rather than what gets accomplished, thereby diminishing the
personal ties.
In the second page of Gladwells Small Change he begins to build his point by stating
These events in the early sixties became a civil-rights war that engulfed the South for the rest of
the decade - and it happened without email, texting, Facebook, or Twitter. (par. 6). In this quote,
Gladwell uses the word engulfed. This use of diction allows you to create precise image of an
area being completely absorbed by an overpowering force; like fire devouring a forest. It
happened without email, texting, Facebook, or Twitter. Within this part of the quote, Gladwell
uses well structured syntax to back up his overall point; social media diminishes the personal ties
in revolutionary ideas. It is not the cause for revolution.

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Continuing on from the previous paragraph, Malcom states, The new tools of social
media have reinvented social activism (para. 7). This is one of Gladwells key arguments. He
explains that since the formation of social media, activists have begun to rely heavily on their
tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc. to get their point across. With the use of these tools, lowerend people are able to collaborate, coordinate more efficiently about their concerns. Gladwell
uses the words collaborate, coordinate as a form of alliteration to help the sentence flow more
smoothly. This combination of quotes used by Gladwell displays how although personal
collaboration has become easier, revolutionary involvement has decreased, and the form of
activism that we knew then, had begun to dissolve.
Later in the analysis, Gladwell explains one of the examples on how social media has
changed how we interpret the idea of activism. The evangelists of social media dont understand
this distinction; they seem to believe that a Facebook friend is the same as a real friend and that
signing up for a donor registry in Silicon Valley today is activism in the same sense as sitting at a
segregated lunch counter in Greensboro in 1960 (para 19) Within this quote of Small Change,
Gladwells uses a tone of disappointment with a hint of sarcastic sass to show how the true
meaning of social activism has been forgotten. Gladwell expresses a tone of disappointment
mainly by saying The evangelists of social media dont understand this distinction. The form
of sarcastic, sass used by Gladwell is primarily expressed through saying ... seem to believe that
a Facebook friend is the same as a real friend Also in this same quote, ... activism in the
same sense as sitting at a segregated lunch counter Gladwell uses alliteration allowing for
gracious sentence fluency.
Gladwell moves on to say, Because networks dont have a centralized leadership
structure and clear lines of authority they have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting

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goals (para 24) This quote helps to back up one of Gladwells key points. This part of this piece
of literature is the very quote that proved the point that Gladwell was trying to make throughout
the paper. He explains how social media has decreased the ability for personal involvement in
revolutionary ideas. Groups of people on Facebook or Twitter may have thousands of friends
or followers, but in the end there is no clear lines of authority or organization of leadership.
This problem causes great difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals This use of a motif
causes the reader to think back to a previous point that Gladwell made in his paper; Are people
who log on to their Facebook page really the best hope for us all? (para 8) Meaning, is the
formation of our country really relying on the power of social media?
In conclusion, Gladwell does an admirable job with sentence structure, use of tone, use of
diction and most impressively, imagery. The way that Gladwell uses advanced vocabulary in an
unforgettable structure, allows the reader to create a vivid image of what he is trying to say. This
allows his arguments to be entertaining, as well as powerful. Building up to the end of Small
Change, Gladwell makes it very clear that although a like or two might bring you joy, it is
truly a thief. Overall, it takes away your revolutionary involvement on a personal level.

Work Cited:

Gladwell, Malcolm. Small Change: Why the Revolution Will Not be Tweeted. New Yorker 4
Oct 2010. Print.