Gladwell and Gopnik
With America’s history of people fighting for their rights, we have become accustomed to the idea that activism needs to be extreme; to cause riots, have aggression, and for people to be put in jail to make a point. We have created an image that there needs to be a fierce willingness to fight, in order for activism to be effective. As Malcolm Gladwell describes in “Why the Revolution Should not be Tweeted”, he reminds us of what ‘real’ activism is and how other generations have risked their lives to make a difference, in both their lives and the future of America. He does not think that activists can be considered true activists if they are non-violent when protesting for their rights. However, Gladwell should consider that protesting is a process that doesn’t start off as being violent and aggressive. The first stages of a successful protest involve acknowledging the problem. In the other text, “Bumping into Mr. Ravioli”, Adam Gopnik claims that technology pushes people apart because of a "busy-ness" affect that it creates. What he does not realize is that he used technology as a resource to help him become a more understanding father. After recognizing a problem with his daughter and her imaginary friend, he reaches out to his sister, a developmental psychologist, through phone calls and emails. While it does keep us too busy sometimes, social media has benefits to it. It is a tool that can be used to exchange information, teach its users, and continually raise awareness. Once our generation is able to realize the benefits of social media and use it to its advantage while minimizing its cons, it can prove to Gladwell that tweeting, or Facebook-ing isn’t useless. It is a tool that has the potential to bring activism to another level. The idea that social media has a weak tie to activism should be reconsidered since social media was created to bring their users together. One person cannot work alone with any big task. For example, Gopnik, who