“Retweet” is a common expression now used by teenagers when they approve of what someone else has to say. With this simple word we can see just how much social media influences our lives. Journalist and staff writer for The New Yorker, Malcolm Gladwell, in his article, SMALL CHANGE: Why the Revolution Won’t Be Tweeted, discusses how social media will never replace the effectiveness of high risk activism. Gladwell’s purpose is to convince people that social media isn’t as promising to change the status quo as many believe it is. He creates an authoritative tone to interest his intended audience to do something bigger than social media can ever offer. Gladwell becomes successful with his argument because he appeals to the audience in a personal
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He wrote this article at a time when social media was really starting to explode. In the year 2010 Facebook users overtook the number of Google users, Time Magazine named Mark Zuckerberg its person of the year, and companies started to have social media policies; these are only a few of the social media happenings around this time. Also at this time, there were many tense political matters causing people to take a stand and try to make something happen. Gladwell was aware of all these circumstances and wrote the article to show his readers that although social media is booming and helps create networks, it doesn’t take the place of high risk activism. If people really want something to happen or change they need to be actively engaged in the cause more so than liking a post on …show more content…
The technique he uses is he gives an example followed by an explanation of said example and then gives another example etc. This strategy makes him appear highly knowledgeable in both political history and social phycology, strengthening the validity of his argument. In addition to this strategy, Gladwell uses effective word choice that can be understood by the general population, but possesses a higher education quality. Because of this strategy, his article is easy to follow and
He wrote this article at a time when social media was really starting to explode. In the year 2010 Facebook users overtook the number of Google users, Time Magazine named Mark Zuckerberg its person of the year, and companies started to have social media policies; these are only a few of the social media happenings around this time. Also at this time, there were many tense political matters causing people to take a stand and try to make something happen. Gladwell was aware of all these circumstances and wrote the article to show his readers that although social media is booming and helps create networks, it doesn’t take the place of high risk activism. If people really want something to happen or change they need to be actively engaged in the cause more so than liking a post on …show more content…
The technique he uses is he gives an example followed by an explanation of said example and then gives another example etc. This strategy makes him appear highly knowledgeable in both political history and social phycology, strengthening the validity of his argument. In addition to this strategy, Gladwell uses effective word choice that can be understood by the general population, but possesses a higher education quality. Because of this strategy, his article is easy to follow and