The two articles above cover the topics of internet publicity, new media, and social networking from separate viewpoints. The first article (It Takes A Village To Find A Phone) concentrates on the benefits (and some drawbacks) of the advancement of social media; using the quite recent “Stolen Sidekick” incident as an example. The article talks about the ways in which social medias such as Facebook and Twitter are effective at raising awareness to certain issues. The second article (Small Change) uses an older example to take the opposing argument. It begins by illustrating to us a situation that occurred in the 60s, for the purpose of telling us that social activism today isn't what it used to be years ago.
Though many may not entirely agree with the second article, I believe it has a strong, valid point; more so than the first article. It uses concrete examples to explain the essential differences between history's high-risk activism and the social mediums activists use to petition today. It also directly attacks the events that are discussed in the first article, dismissing this notion of an “upgrade” to activism; at the same time claiming that we live in a “networked, weak-tie world” focused on bettering irrelevant issues. When we look at the way social networks are used today, we can see what the second article is talking about. “Weak ties” refers to people having a vast network of “friends”; friends that people share weak relationships with. As the article explains; this method of activism is easy when it comes to expressing one's self; but more difficult for that expression to have any impact.
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