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Malcolm Gladwell is back with a new book that doesn’t sound like one I want to spend time reading.
I have, however, shared a number of useful pieces he’s written and points he’s made, and you can find them all here.
The Atlantic published a strong critique of it. I thought this paragraph was the most useful to those of us trying to make societal change, and it’s a good reminder about what I think was Gladwell’s most important writing:
Almost a decade later, he followed this hunch even further in a much-discussed New Yorker article, “Small Change.” He was responding to the growing notion that social media would prove to be a revolutionary weapon for enabling political transformation. Gladwell dissented, presciently in some ways. He contrasted the 1960s civil-rights movement with online activism, drawing on the sociologist Mark Granovetter’s study of what he called “weak ties.” The work of desegregating lunch counters and securing voting rights in the South demanded “strong ties,” or personal, face-to-face relationships; what Gladwell saw on social media were networks based on weak ties, or casual, virtual acquaintances—too scattered for the sort of “military campaign” needed to upend the status quo. The Arab Spring’s unfolding bore out this view, as have fruitless bouts of online activism since then.
I’m adding this info to The Best Posts & Articles On Building Influence & Creating Change.
Malcolm Gladwell is back with a new book that doesn’t sound like one I want to spend time reading. I have, however, shared a number of useful pieces he’s written and points he’s made, and you can find them all here. The Atlantic published a strong critique of it. I thought this paragraph was Uncategorized Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…
