Social Activism and Social Media

In STS302H we will be talking about Wendell Berry's vision of community today. This week in the New Yorker, there is a related article by Malcolm Gladwell. A lot of people have hyped the possibilities of social media to affect social change, and some people have claimed that technologies like Twitter empowered people in Iran to protest the massive election fraud in that country. Gladwell is skeptical. He gives as a counter-example the story of the lunch counter boycotts in North Carolina and notes these were launched by people who had "strong ties" to each other--they were good friends and were committed to each other. Gladwell claims that Twitter and Facebook promote "weak-ties,"--people you are happy to know, but whom you won't risk your life for. Gladwell claims that connections with weak-ties can be very helpful in some situations--finding a job, finding a possible blood marrow donor, but not in others, such as agitating for serious social change. Wendell Berry would translate this into the need to have strong communities where one has strong face-t0-face relations with people.