According to Malcolm Gladwell’s article Small Change:  Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted, he believes that social media is built around weak ties and real social change can never come from loose networks of people that do not know each other.

Although social media may create awareness, I am asked if social and political action through online media make deep, lasting and revolutionary change? Why or why not?  Well I think that in some way Mr. Gladwell is correct in his assessment and has provided some relevant arguments.

However Social Media has been evolving and changing since it began.  We continue to experiment with it to see what we can do with it and whether it is making a difference (if we need it to).  The following information that I have gathered is providing information that supports my thoughts that yes Social Media can cause revolutionary change.  Once we learn how and with what effectively, it will be just a matter of time.

According to Tom Flannagan, a professor of Political Science at the University of Calgary, Social Media may not have had an impact on politics here in Canada compared to the U.S. He claims that our culture may be the reason behind it as well as our political system.  It seems that “Canadian politicians use social media almost exclusively in a top-down way to present their human side to voters.  The down side is that this type of communication doesn’t energize political participation”. (The Globe and Mail)

Flannagan suggests that “Justin Trudeau may be best equipped to making a Social Media Breakthrough”. How?  Well, he is young and handsome and appeals to the younger generation that lives and breathes social media. Apparently his team may be working on a participatory initiative and if his social media team can overcome the Canadian system, Trudeau just might have that revolutionary change that Mr. Gladwell says is not possible.    (http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/will-social-media-change-canadian-politics-hasnt-happened-yet/article11698749/)

I even found information on WikiHow that provides you with 8 ways to use Social Media to spur political change.  Some of these ways are quite obvious and some should be seriously considered and thought through. (http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Social-Media-to-Spur-Political-Change)

The following video is from a representative of Amnesty International discussing how Social Media has affected the Middle East & North Africa regions. North Africa is a region with high access to the Internet and is a region where government is trying to control the internet.  She says it is also a region where it has surfaced that the internet is a tool they can use to challenge the government. (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apUtmzbx3vo#t=54)

Can real change occur?  Yes it can, it might start out as Slactivism. (The word is usually considered a pejorative term that describes "feel-good" measures, in support of an issue or social cause, that have little physical or practical effect, other than to make the person doing it feel satisfied that they have contributed). (Wikipedia).  However with effort and repeated attempts, a group will find a way, or the right formula to put together and finally get a breakthrough with social media that could change the world.

Sources

Amnesty International.  (January 28, 2011). Networking for change, social media in the Middle East and North Africa. Youtube. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=apUtmzbx3vo#t=54

Flannagan, Tom. (May 6, 2013).  Will social media change Canadian politics? Hasn’t happened yet. Globe and Mail. Retrieved from http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-debate/will-social-media-change-canadian-politics-hasnt-happened-yet/article11698749/

Gladwell, Malcolm.  (2010). Small Change: Why the Revolution will not be Tweeted. The New Yorker. Retrieved from http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/04/101004fa_fact _gladwell?currentPage=all

Wikihow (n.d.) How to use Social Media to Spur Political Change: 8 Methods. Retrieved from http://www.wikihow.com/Use-Social-Media-to-Spur-Political-Change

Wikipedia. (March 16, 2016) Slactivism. Wikimedia Foundation Inc. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slacktivism.