According to Malcom Gladwell social media are built around weak ties and real social change can never come from loose networks of people that do not know each other. Do you think that social media has the potential to bring about real social change?
With all due respect to Malcom Gladwell I have to disagree with him on this subject. Social media is the use of web-based and mobile technologies to turn communication into interactive dialogue. Andreas Kaplan and Michael Haenlein also define social media as "a group of Internet-based applications that build on the ideological and technological foundations of Web 2.0, which allows the creation and exchange of user-generated content. Businesses also refer to social media as consumer-generated media (CGM). A common thread running through all definitions of social media is a blending of technology and social interaction for the co-creation of value.Best examples would be the recent Arab revolution. It started on social media. People all around Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and possibly another countries in the near future, agreed on specific dates to demonstrate against the rulers that have been misleading their own people for decades. It all started on twitter and face book and later on with videos on you tube. Although the regime tried to suppress all types of media from airing the truth to the world, the people managed to pick up the events on their cell phones and posting it on you tube a new way of delivering News through different Medias. The videos are showing what was happening on the streets from attacking and killing the demonstrators to destroying the infrastructure and the houses. It certainly got the world’s attention. Without the social media we wouldn’t be able to know everything. Just three days ago, a journalist from Aljazeera TV had been targeted and killed in Libya just because he is an honest journalist, telling what was exactly happening in the battle between the rebels and the regime supporters.
Another example of how the social media has the potential to bring about real social change is what has happened in Japan and the nuclear disaster that no one knows how it will end. The Japanese community was very concerned about their loved ones overseas as well as few Canadian families who found messages on twitter or face book from their family members or friends abroad trying to reassure them about their safety.
Amazing what social media is creating. It is definitely creating a new world of communication that won’t die and will still evolve to be more effective.
