Student Blog Posts

Social Media Activism: Wouldn’t You Have Tweeted the Civil Rights Movement?

February 17, 2012 by SSM Student in Student Blog Posts with 8 Comments

"Don't worry, it'll be all over Facebook in a minute."

Let me just start off by saying how big a fan I am of Malcolm Gladwell’s books The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers. It’s because of this that it makes me so disheartened to read a very intelligent man completely miss the bar when discussing social media activism vs the “high-risk activism” of the 1960’s Civil Rights Movement in this article he wrote for the New Yorker.

In the article, Gladwell makes a point of identifying all networks uniformly, as lacking, “a centralized leadership structure and clear lines of authority.” Gladwell also states that networks, “have real difficulty reaching consensus and setting goals. They can’t think strategically; they are chronically prone to conflict and error.” This lack of discipline and strategy on the part of social media is something that Gladwell will repeatedly refer to in his article, continually referring to social media activism as “low-risk activism.”

All of these are statements are made along the backdrop of the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960’s, arguing that the reason the movement was ultimately as successful as it was resulted from the “high-risk activism” that was achieved through the presence of organized, clear hierarchies present within organizations like the Southern Christian Leadership Conference — elements which Gladwell claims cannot exist within a modern-day social media network.

But does this argument hold water? Gladwell points to Wikipedia, and it’s, “ceaseless pattern of correction and revision, amendment and debate, that characterizes [it],” when speaking on social media as a whole. Doesn’t Wikipedia have a NETWORK of editors, but one that isn’t all-inclusive and — in regards to the functioning of the site — hierarchically of greater importance?

Gladwell even considers the argument that others have made before regarding the effect social media would have had in the Civil Rights era, but dismisses the usefulness that Facebook and Twitter could have had under the argument of revision to the point of detriment, lack of organization and perpetuation of false information with which he characterizes Wikipedia. His argument of hypothetical Civil Rights social media also only argues social media activism in the terms of replacing the traditional, “high-risk” activism — not as a compliment. As a critical reader of the article, the generalization of all social media to the author’s misguided parameters of one type of social media and the lack of recognition as to how it can compliment traditional activism conveys the author’s overall lack of understanding of social media as a whole.

If social media existed in the Civil Rights era, don’t you think it would have helped? Wouldn’t you have tweeted the Civil Rights Movement?

– Mitch Earnshaw

@MitchEarnshaw

8 Comments

eric hanFeb 19, 2012 at 5:16 pm

I completely agree that social media would have been a game-changer if it existed during the Civil Rights era. But, I think you’re overlooking how structured America was at the time. If you’re saying that social media would’ve helped the Civil Rights movement, then the same would apply to the people who were against the movement. Racism didn’t only occur in the South region of the US, it occurred all over the states. While I do believe that social media would’ve been useful, it is important to consider other perspectives as well
Jake OldachFeb 19, 2012 at 11:31 pm

This poses an interesting question to me. It’s hard to ponder the hypothetical of social media back then, because the world was so strikingly different than what it has been today. I would argue that it took things like the Civil Rights Movement, people standing up and fighting for what they believed in, for our country to reach the point where freedom of expression was protected enough to birth technology like Twitter and Facebook.
Max BarkleyFeb 20, 2012 at 2:09 pm

The civil rights era would have been massively different with social media, twitter, Facebook, etc. It is hard to imagine though. This probably would mean that online racism and hatred would be at it’s pinnacle. What if it made the situation worse? There would be Facebook hate groups and twitter hate groups etc. At the same time the way our economy works is totally different and the business that make up the vast economy now all use social media. They use it to build sales and market and promote. What if they got involved with digital hatred? In the end though, I assume it would have the same relationship to movement in comparison to how the Egyptian rebels used it against Mubarak.
Hannah LongoFeb 20, 2012 at 4:41 pm

Although I think social media would have made an impact during the Civil Rights era, I think that Gladwell has a point. Social media is much more of a low-risk activism. Perhaps someone’s or something’s reputation can be damaged, but no one is physically putting themselves in harms way when participating in social media. Anyone can sit behind a computer and speak their mind, but put take them out of the social media world and put them into the real world, I guarantee they wont be as vocal. The protest MLK and his supporters participated in were so effective and impacting because they weren’t just advocating for their rights by speaking, they were demonstrating that they were willing to put themselves in harms way by being physically present. Though social media has forever changed the way news and ideas get around, it really can’t beat face-to-face communication.
Erin FlahertyFeb 21, 2012 at 5:58 pm

It is interesting to think about the effect social media could have during important movements in history. It is remarkable how united and organized the Civil Rights Movement was without the aid of social media to communicate.This definitely speaks to the argument that the Civil Rights Movement was one of high-risk activism where supporters had to be public and active in their tactics. No one could hide behind their computers, they physically had to engage in activities that promoted change. I agree also with the point that those against Civil Rights would probably utilize social media to promote their own message. It would be interesting to know what side of the movement would have had a more active social media base.
Amanda StrommeFeb 22, 2012 at 1:36 pm

I think that it is so easy for us to see the added value of social media regarding social activism. In recent years social media has become a resource for information, especially Twitter! It has now become a tool to communicate and organize around topics and discussions. Though I don’t think that social media is enough to fully execute movements such as the civil rights. I think the value behind social media is the aspect of create a community, creating discussions, and reaching a mass audience. Once issues have been brought to the attention of the audience it is then that opinion leaders need to emerge. During the civil rights movement opinion leaders gave speeches and lead rallies while today they have the option of constantly communicating important information. Social media can lead to better reaching the public and possibly increased organization and awareness. However, it is not enough to simply sit behind a computer. Action is still an important aspect of social activism that leads to change.
Carson YorkFeb 27, 2012 at 12:27 pm

100% agree that Gladwell, a very smart man, has missed the point on social media. I used to fall into the Gladwell camp, but within the last two years have been convinced that he is vastly underestimating the power of social media. Its greatest strength is the the speed of connectivity, although for the large part we have not developed a genuine means for action. We also need to be aware of privacy issues, in places where public discourse is not supported by a constitution, online activism can be very dangerous.
Yana NemecekMar 6, 2012 at 11:52 amAuthor

I do believe that social media has a drive in today’s society that no one can compare to, but to say compare the Occupy movement with the Civil Rights movement is impossible. The generations are so vastly different in mind that even if social media was present back then, it wouldn’t have had the right impact. I think social media has opened up people’s minds and has made tolerance to certain issues increase.

I believe that social media is a force to be reckoned with.

PS love Outliers