Gladwell

Strong and Weak Ties in Social Media
Social networking has become the most prominent way to connect oneself to another. Twitter, Facebook, Vine, and other now big social networking sites have become one of the most important ways to connect and to use those connections to create change or to join others who are involved in social change. Gladwell introduces the idea in Small Change that “The world, we are told, is in the midst of a revolution” (232). Communication is being altered daily, and over the years has changed from social activism sparked only by person-to-person contact, to telephone conversations, and to the Internet and social media sites. Strong ties and weak ties are both necessary to create social change because getting involved without social networking is an effective way to act on a cause, and although social networking can be helpful in connecting people together, there will be no real action taken to help a certain cause. People all over the world use social networking sites as a way to find different causes and ways to get involved. The total number of active Twitter users is approximately 554,750,000, with the average number of tweets sent out per day being approximately 58 million. Closely related to Twitter, the total number of active Facebook users is over a billion (Twitter, and Huffington Post). These numbers are incredible and are growing each day. Going on one of these social networking sites allows a person to “follow” or “add” an abundance of new acquaintances. These people may lead one to find a certain cause that interests him or her, maybe a protest or a charity. In a way, one might say that the weak ties created by these sites will lead a person to do more and to act on a cause they may find, but there is no real personal tie that connects one person to another. Gladwell states “In other words, Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating them to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice” (235). Gladwell explains that social networking sites may have the effect to make someone feel as though they are doing something and making a difference, but in reality that person is simply pretending to do something important. Strong ties are what really motivate people all over the world to take action. To meet someone or to find something that a person believes in without using Facebook or Twitter helps to create strong ties. Getting involved in a protest, going to a soup kitchen or an animal shelter and making a real change is more important then simply “liking” or “re-tweeting”. During the Civil Rights Movement, the protests had an impact on people. In Small Change, Gladwell begins to tell the story of four college students who were refused service at a restaurant because of the color of their skin. The four boys refused to leave after being rejected, and as a result, this began a protest. Gladwell states “By next morning, the protest had grown to twenty seven men and four women, most from the same dormitory as the original four” (Gladwell 231). These four boys made an impact on another group of people, which then started a domino effect. More and more people came to support the boys and what they were doing; strong ties working in ways that the weak ties of social networking could not have possibly done.
Weak ties can give someone an abundance of new information or allow one to express their true feelings or beliefs. Although weak ties can be helpful in certain ways, without a real connection to someone or something, how will your actions over a social networking site have any impact at all in reality? There are ways to turn a social activity over the Internet into reality, but it is more effective to create change through strong, personal ties. In high school, there were many charitable clubs to join. There were people I could talk to or flyers I could pick up, but the main approach was over Facebook. A Facebook group was made for a certain club, and I would join along with up to a hundred students from my school all looking to learn more about this club. I would read the description, and the leaders of the club would post meeting times or activities on weekends that anyone could go to. Sometimes, these groups worked. Students would show up to meetings, or show up to a soup kitchen or a charity walk. Although sometimes these weak ties could produce something great, sometimes these connections would fall apart. Nobody would show up, or they would, and then do absolutely nothing that could possibly benefit the charity in any way. The club was simply a way to write down community service hours, or donate a few dollars and say that they had made a change. The way a person would find out about this would be a large public announcement over social media, where a large amount of people would see and do the same things. Weak ties can most certainly create real change, and sometimes all it takes is one person to “tweet” about a cause to create a wave. “Twitter is a way of following (or being followed by) people you may never have met. Facebook is a tool for efficiently managing your acquaintances…” (234). Gladwell introduces the belief that although the weak ties of these social media sites are ways to connect, to really make an impact, a connection on a personal level is necessary. Thousands of people can join in, and actually take action and really get involved in what they believe in. Social networking and social activism are sometimes necessary for one another, and sometimes weak ties truly can create measurable change in the world. A seven second video on Vine about an important charity, or a short 100 character tweet about a way to donate to an important cause can really make a person want to go out and help create the change that they know is possible, but how many people involved in a cause over the Internet actually get up and do something? Gladwell explains that personal connections are more effective as he states “One study of the Red Brigades, the Italian terrorist group of the nineteen-seventies, found that seventy per cent of recruits had at least one good friend already in the organization” (233). Weak ties can occasionally create the same effect as strong ties, and having a connection with someone does not necessarily mean that they will automatically have more of an impact on society than a person who takes action having only weak ties with a person or multiple people they meet over the Internet. Weak ties can bring people together, but strong ties and strong social contact is more effective and can make more of a difference. High-risk activism is extremely important in creating change world-wide. Without high-risk activism, there would be no risks taken, and no real change from some very important causes. “High-risk activism, McAdam concluded, is a “strong tie” phenomenon” (Gladwell 233). People all around the globe can be involved in something important via Facebook, but most of these people feel more comfortable sitting in front of a screen as opposed to getting up and doing something about what they believe in. If the goal of posting a picture or a status about a movement is to bring that problem to light, then yes, it is successful, but this does not change anything. One will very rarely, if ever, see a revolution begin over a simple tweet or status. Eventually, I believe that social media will become the most prominent way to get involved. It does give someone information about a certain cause that maybe they would not have known of otherwise. Of course the people around me do not know of everything, and I have certainly learned some important things over the Internet, but a personal connection and a strong tie can lead to people taking real action on something that is important to them. Small Change by Malcolm Gladwell argues that social networking such as Facebook and Twitter create only weak ties that cannot truly connect people to a certain cause or belief. Although it can be argued that weak ties can lead to stronger ties, stronger ties and stronger connections lead people to take action and create greater change in what they believe in. Having a personal connection with another person or a group of people helps motivate one to take action and do something important, whether it be participating in a protest or helping out at a soup kitchen. Making a difference can be possible by both weak and strong ties, but to have a strong, personal tie with another person or a cause can really make a different in the world.