People feel that over time, that different things in have become less meaningful, especially, in the case of “Empathy Diaries” by Sherry Turkle and “A Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwel, genuine connections. When it comes to technology, people the authors tend to think even more that things have become less meaningful. After reading “Empathy Diaries” by Sherry Turkle and “A Small Change” by Malcolm Gladwell, they both tend to agree with that statement. I also believe that technology has made things less meaningful. To Turkle, digital technology has made people not have true friendships and instead are really only making acquaintances. While to Gladwell, technology has made activism less meaningful. I also believe that technology has made things less meaningful because [JO1] activism and friendships has changed from technology and not in the best ways.

Activism [NB2] is different for everyone and how they choose to be activists. That does not mean all types of activism is are effective,. Eespecially while on social media. [JO3] There are many people that only post on social media because others are doing it. [SS4] Others[NB5]  will use their social[SS6]  media to spread awareness to people about a certain topic. Many people have found that non-social media activism, like boycotts, stand-ins, etc., have been more effective than the social media activisms. [SS7] [NB8] 

Social media can bring together a group of activists for certain situations that sometimes causes that group to band together and finally stand up for what they believe in. But I do not think that is considered to be [SS9] activism through social media, because the group of people usually will stand up for whatever cause in person instead of doing it just through social[NB10]  media.[SS11]  Social media has made a lot of people feel empowered to stand up for what they believe in and post about it. Although with a lot of people that is all that they will do, which is just post about it. [SS12] Some people will even post about a situation once and never talk about it again. Of course, a lot of people are trying to spread awareness through their posts but sometimes doing just that is not effective. Especially if the person posts about it once and then never talks about it again, that will not do anything. Even if posting about it is not that effective, you get to find others who agree with you, and sometimes that can turn into a movement itself. In the article “A Small Change,” by Malcolm Gladwell, it mentions a story of activists that met through Twitter.[NB13]  It said, “When ten thousand protestors took to the streets in Moldova in the spring of 2009 to protest against their country’s Communist government, the action was dubbed the Twitter Revolution, because of the means by which the demonstrators had been brought together.”[JO14] That is amazing to think about. All it took was for people to start talking about it on social media, and then they were able to band together and protest in person to try and stand up for what they believe in.[JO15] [NB16] 

Activism is different for everyone and how they choose to be activists. That does not mean all types of activism is are effectiv[SS17] e,. Eespecially while on social media. [JO18] There are many people that only post on social media because others are doing it. Others will use their social media to spread awareness to people about a certain topic. Many people have found that non-social media activism, like boycotts, stand-ins, etc., have been more effective than the social media activisms. [SS19] 

Social media can bring together a group of activists for certain situations that sometimes causes that group to band together and finally stand up for what they believe in. But I do not think that is considered to be activism through social media, because the group of people usually will stand up for whatever cause in person instead of doing it just through social media.[JO20] 

Social media has made a lot of people feel empowered to stand up for what they believe in and post about it.[SS21] Although with a lot of people that is all that they will do, which is just post about it. Some people will even post about a situation once and never talk about it again. Of course, a lot of people are trying to spread awareness through their posts but sometimes doing just that is not effective[SS22] . Especially if the person posts about it once and then never talks about it again, that will not do anything. Even if posting about it is not that effective, you get to find others who agree with you, and sometimes that can turn into a movement itself. In the article “A Small Change,” by Malcolm Gladwell, it mentions a story of activists that met through Twitter. It said, “When ten thousand protestors took to the streets in Moldova in the spring of 2009 to protest against their country’s Communist government, the action was dubbed the Twitter Revolution, because of the means by which the demonstrators had been brought together.” That is amazing to think about. All it took was for people to start talking about it on social media, and then they were able to band together and protest in person to try and stand up for what they believe in.[JO23] [NB24] 

Sherry Turkle b[SS25] elieves that we are being silenced by our digital technology and therefore have a lack of empathy.[SS26]  She says, “We are being silenced by our technologies- in a way “cured of talking”[NB27] .” In some ways I agree with Turkle while in other ways I think that we are not[SS28] . There are many people that use technology as a way to stand up for what they believe in, which in a way is not being silenced by technology. I have seen so many post about many different things going on in the world, that they want to speak about. In another way we are being silenced by technology, because a lot of people use just technology to stand up for what they believe in, instead of talking about it in person[NB29] .Being an activist on social media does not always get you where you want to go, when you are trying to stand up for something.[SS30]  In fact, some people just post about whatever to be liked by others. They will post about whatever is going on in the world at the time because others are posting about it, then they never post about it again. Which means that they just did it because of everyone else just to make them look good and raise their social status. That is called performative activism. The actual definition of performative activism is activism done to increase one’s social capital rather than because of one’[SS31] s devotion to a cause. I have seen many people who have done those acts themselves, where they just share a post and never talk about the it again.[JO32] 

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