Small Change or Big Change?

Malcolm Gladwell's "Small Change" vs. Clay Shirky's "It Takes A Village To Find A Phone"

I think both articles are convincing and strong with their examples. I would like to point out that Shirky and Gladwell’s are discussing groups that exist for different reasons. Shirky’s story is about the stolen phone and Gladwell’s story isabout social activism; they work differently and apparently express different interests.

I agree with Gladwell that social/political change needs to be done physically instead of ONLY spreading the message online. Since online groups are easy to join, they are easy to leave as well. If I join a group on Facebook, I do not have the obligation to be loyal to that group and I can leave the group any time. However, if I really care about an issue, I will take practical action to join the group physically and attend the meeting/protest.

When it comes to a less-serious issue like the stolen phone incident, online groups work well but it also has a limitation - the issue needs to be “fresh” enough to catch attention of the netizens. If this incident happens today, I don’t think many people would pay that much of attention. Most netizens expect contents on the Internet to be entertaining or attention catching; or else one can just close the browser window or check out about something else. Like what I said before, the information is easy to get, therefore it is easy to be navigated away as well.