Blog Post 7: Evaluation of Two Articles and Their Arguments

For my newest blog post, I was to read chapter one of the book, It Takes A Village to Find A Phone, and the article Small Change. These two texts draw on similar concepts. The concept of groups coming together to get something accomplished. The first article, It Takes A Village to Find A Phone, talks about a situation in which online blogging and news media became focused on the situation of a stolen phone. It shows how alone, Ivanna and Evan would have never been able to get back the phone (because of threats and police), but with the help of online social networking, the power of the community was able to get the phone back to its rightful owner. In the other article, Small Change, it touches on Activism, and groups coming together before the age of the internet, to protest. It also recalls group activism through the internet nowadays, and how facebook and twitter have brought awareness of social issues to many groups of people. In Small Change, the author argues that social networks like twitter and facebook are no good for social activism. He says that the networks are weak, and the only thing they can accomplish is simply, getting a phone back (in reference to It Takes A Village to Find A Phone). He explains how before, protestors would gain the courage to get some friends involved, and have 'sit-downs' or go out and protest what they are after. This is how many people ended up getting involved, and could solve bigger issues at hand, like allowing 'blacks' to eat at a restaurant. I agree that real-world protesting, that is, outside the internet world, can be much more effective in getting larger social issues abolished; but I do think that the network world can bring together larger groups of people.
On an online network, say Facebook, people can form together in groups, and speak out for social activism. These people generally feel free to speak their mind, compared to the risks of protesting physically in the real world, and possibly getting arrested. I think that the social networking draws a bigger crowd to talk about problems without worrying, but not much can get accomplished if only a few cents is being donated to a charity, or and no one is even moving to sign a petition. More is said, less is done. In the 'real-world' people protest for the environment, politics, rights, etc, and get out there and do everything possible. More can get accomplished this way. However, there was a case, where I would find myself agreeing to the new form of network activism. This case happened not too long ago, where a facebook group was built called Young Drivers Against Ontario Laws, to protest passenger restrictions for drivers under the age of 21. So many yound drivers were appauled by this new law that was about to come into affect and joined the group. Since so many people were in the group and spoke out, the passenger restrictions were removed from the legislation. In this case, I think that the power of the facebook group did an amazing job getting the word out and into the news, in order to take down a law that was not believed in.

In many senses, I agree with both forms of protest, and do not think that Network activism is 'weak'. I think the Internet era is just a new way to allow people to speak their mind, just like we do when we protest in person.