Social Media Causing Real Social Change?

I believe that social media has enormous potential to bring change to the world. The first thing needed to start change is the idea for change. With Facebook alone there are 750 000 users who are checking their pages and frequently come across ideas for change. If the idea for change is big enough and enough people get behind the motion of the idea, change usually happens. A social change in North America happened recently when individuals started checking their smart phones to get up to date news instead of watching the daily news at home in front of the television. This social change was caused by social media tools that informed people of up to the minute news coverage. Although this was a very large social change there are constantly minor social changes that go on everyday because of social media.  As said in this week’s reading, social media has the potential of social change because anybody with an internet connection can reach a global audience. Activist and advocates are some of those people who use social media to bring about social change in today’s world. These Activist and Advocates use social media to help bring support to causes taking action to help humans, animals and the environment.  An example of this is Support the Monks protest in Burma which in ten days received 140000 members supporting them.  Also non profit organizations have started using social media tools to help gain support and funds to help them accomplish charitable deeds. Many non profit cancer charities use social media such as Face book’s causes to raise money for research.  Microphilanthropy is another way social media is bringing change to our societies.  Organizations such as Kiva, facilitates microcredit loans by individuals to entrepreneurs in the developing world. This is a huge social change that has come up using social media. There are now humans helping one another to finance a business projects that don’t even know each other.  All of the above information about the public helping one another through social media proves Malcom Gladwell theory wrong that “social media will never bring real social change because of loose networks where people don’t know each other”. Instead social media has brought huge social changed to our world as people now more than ever seem to be helping their fellow human beings, even if they don’t know each other.  Therefore because of the following information I believe social media can bring about real social change.