13/10/2010 Twitter: Gladwell's social media argu…

Twitter: Gladwell's social media

argument 'laughable'
Ev Williams and Biz Stone hit back at the New Yorker article that
got everybody tweeting

Biz Stone, co-founder of Tw itter: Absurd to suggest social networks aren't com plem entary to activ ism

Twitter founders Ev Williams and Biz Stone have derided Malcolm Gladwell's contention
that the effect of online networks on social change is greatly exaggerated, saying his
argument is "laughable".

Williams, who stepped down as chief executive of the social networking site last week,
said Gladwell's New Yorker article was "entertaining but kind of pointless", while Stone
said it was "absurd" to think that social networks were not "complementary to
activism".

The pair are the latest to launch a riposte to Gladwell's dismissal of social networks, after
the article – subheaded "Why the revolution will not be tweeted" – began to make
waves on Monday 4 October.

Williams said: "It was a very well-constructed argument but it was kind of laughable.

"Anyone who's claiming that sending a tweet by itself is activism, that's ludicrous — but
no one's claiming that, at least no one that's credible. If you can't organise you can't
activate. I thought [the article] was entertaining but kind of pointless."

In his argument, Gladwell cited the American civil rights movement of the late-fifties
and sixties as an example of social change that was based on intimate friendship,
suggesting that the "weak ties" connecting people online were not of the same influence.

"Enthusiasts for social media would no doubt have us believe that [Martin Luther] King's
task in Birmingham, Alabama, would have been made infinitely easier had he been able

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13/10/2010 Twitter: Gladwell's social media argu…
to communicate with his followers through Facebook, and contented himself with tweets
from a Birmingham jail," Gladwell argued.

"But [online] networks are messy: think of the ceaseless pattern of correction and
revision, amendment and debate, that characterises Wikipedia. If Martin Luther King,
Jr had tried to do a wiki-boycott in Montgomery, he would have been steamrollered by
the white power structure.

"And of what use would a digital communication tool be in a town where 98% of the black
community could be reached every Sunday morning at church? The things that King
needed – discipline and strategy – were things that online social media cannot provide."

Stone, the co-founder of Twitter, said on Monday: "The real-time exchange of

information — a service like Twitter — it would be absurd to think it's not
complementary to activism. When it really comes down to it, it's not going to be
technology that's going to be the agent of change. It's going to be people; it's going to be
humanity."

The pair did, however, hold back from the kind of hyperbole heaped upon Twitter for its
role in last year's Iranian election protests, saying that no one had intimated that 'the
revolution will be tweeted'.

"It's always been our goal to reach the 'weakest signals' all over the world, such as the
recent usage in Iran and Moldova," Williams said.

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Skiamakhos
12 October 2010 1:41PM
Twitter was pretty well central to the anti-police brutality demo that happened in
London's Scotland Yard after the killing of Ian Tomlinson. The demo was organised
within a couple of hours of the death IIRC.
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Jungla
12 October 2010 1:53PM
The cadre of prominent bloggers, like Andrew Sullivan, who championed the role of
social media in Iran, Esfandiari continued, misunderstood the situation. “Western
journalists who couldn’t reach—or didn’t bother reaching?—people on the ground in Iran

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13/10/2010 Twitter: Gladwell's social media argu…
simply scrolled through the English-language tweets post with tag #iranelection,” she
wrote. “Through it all, no one seemed to wonder why people trying to coordinate
protests in Iran would be writing in any language other than Farsi.”
That's a good point. People like to feel part of a movement.
Good article, Gladwell.
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encasedsliceofsheet
12 October 2010 1:56PM
Twitter, being the easiest and quickest form currently available of mass communication,
will obviously be part of any large demonstration, and any revolution. That is not to say
that it will unfold in such a dramatically altered way owing to Twitter. That activism will
use the latest available means of easy communication is obvious, and barely worth
stating. Gladwell's point is that mass gathering amongst groups intimate on a personal
level will be necessary and a part of any revolution. Which is unassailable. Another
problem with Twitter as a tool to actually launch or shape a revolution is the problem of
trust. You have to have absolute certainty that everyone who says they will take to the
streets actually WILL. You have to have the power of the group, otherwise you will
worry you will go alone, and end up looking foolish or worse get picked off by the police.
I'm no Gladwell fan in general, but honestly a lot of the reaction to his article has been
very silly, and smacks of a generation terrified of becoming defunct or being tarred with
the "curmudgeon" brush.
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creekwhore
12 October 2010 2:56PM
bosses defend their company from criticism....would you believe it?
Welcome to the age of pointless, droning networks; talk of the "revolution" makes me
laugh. The dystopian vision of people connected to mind numbing brain rinsing has
happened; but ironically, not with forced participation but sheep like, unquestioning
acquiescence. Quick! Twitter what a luddite i am...
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fibmac70
12 October 2010 5:45PM
The pair did, however, hold back from the kind of hyperbole heaped upon Twitter for
its role in last year's Iranian election protests, saying that no one had intimated that
'the revolution will be tweeted'.
What sort of benighted critter
Thinks Ayatollahs can be put to flight by Twitter ?
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dangrech
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13/10/2010 Twitter: Gladwell's social media argu…
13 October 2010 11:28AM
Criticism is completely arbitrary.
Without even thinking there are instances of activism that come to mind. How did Rage
Against The Machine get to Christmas number one? Why did GAP change their logo
back?
Gladwell is great and I've always been a fan. His article makes some thought provoking
points but to boil it down to the statement this article focuses around it is a pretty lazy
remark on his behalf.
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dangrech
13 October 2010 11:33AM
May I amend- what I meant was 'Gladwells Criticism is completely arbitrary in this
instance'.
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dangrech
13 October 2010 12:30PM
Why was my last comment deleted?
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