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Re:Malcolm Gladwell Gets It Wrong – Again by dbingham on Tuesday October 05, 2010 @01:48AM (#1758727)
The author misses the point of Gladwell's piece completely.

"He’s wrong. Facebook does motivate people to do things they wouldn’t otherwise do -– like donate to the Save the Darfur coalition via a Facebook page."

He agrees with the post author, that's exactly what social media does. But what it doesn't do is motivate people to go to Darfur, take a real risk and make a difference on the ground. That's his point, and he's right.

Re:Malcolm Gladwell Gets It Wrong – Again by credo on Tuesday October 05, 2010 @02:15AM (#1758772)
Excellent point.

Gladwell's thesis is that high-risk activism and revolution are "strong-tie" phenomena and require real friendships.

He contrasts that with the "weak-tie" social media scene where people are friends on Twitter or Facebook, but wouldn't really risk their necks based on what their "weak-tie" friends tell them.

The "Save the Darfur coalition" Facebook page demonstrates what a weak-tie network can do and Gladwell's essay also talks about the (limited) usefulness of weak-tie networks (when he uses Shirky's example). It doesn't refute Gladwell's point