1. PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL MEDIA

9. 2011: year of the swarm

10. Gladwell versus Shirky
Malcolm Gladwell (1963-)
• „Small Change: Why the revolution will
not be tweeted‟ (October 2010)
• „Strong‟ versus „weak‟ ties

11. Gladwell versus Shirky
„[T]he fact that barely committed actors
cannot click their way to a better world
does not mean that committed actors
cannot use social media effectively.‟
Clay Shirky (1964-)

12. Gladwell versus Shirky
„It would be impossible to tell the story of Philippine President Joseph Estrada's 2000
downfall without talking about how texting allowed Filipinos to coordinate at a
speed and on a scale not available with other media. Similarly, the supporters of
Spanish Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero used text messaging to
coordinate the 2004 ouster of the People's Party in four days; anticommunist
Moldovans used social media in 2009 to turn out 20,000 protesters in just 36 hours;
the South Koreans who rallied against beef imports in 2008 took their grievances
directly to the public, sharing text, photos, and video online, without needing
permission from the state or help from professional media. … All these actions relied
on the power of social media to synchronize the behavior of groups
quickly, cheaply, and publicly, in ways that were unavailable as recently as a
decade ago‟

13. Gladwell versus Shirky
Bill Wasik (Wired 27/12/11: „Gladwell vs. Shirky: A Year Later, Scoring the Debate
Over Social-Media Revolutions‟)
• Gladwell is right that activism requires more than good communication
• BUT: social media maintains strong ties between distributed friends and allies
• Emotion: the „glue‟ of distributed relationships

14. Swarm theory: Coalition of the Willing

15. Flash mobs as social swarms

16. The joy of the gift: sorry everybody!

17. Occupy Wall Street
• On July 13th, 2011, Adbusters
posted an article titled
#OCCUPYWALLSTREET, calling
people to assemble in Manhattan
on September 17th, 2011
• July 14th, occupywallst.org web
domain registered anonymously
• On August 23rd, the Tumblr “We
Are the 99%” was launched to
curate messages submitted by
those planning to attend the
September 17th protests.

18. Occupy Wall Street
We should remember that there are many voices in this movement and as much
diversity among the protesters as there is in 99% of our population. These different
backgrounds, philosophies, and affiliations can and should come together under a
single cause: to end the corporate greed, corruption, and interference that has
affected all of us‟ (Occupy Together http://occupytogether.org/)

19. Occupy Wall Street

20. Building social capital
Social capital: the social or economic value deriving
from cooperation between individuals
• Robert Putnam (1941-)
‟School performance, public health, crime rates,
clinical depression, tax compliance, philanthropy,
race relations, community development, census
returns, teen suicide, economic productivity,
campaign finance, even simple human happiness --
all are demonstrably affected by how (and whether)
we connect with our family and friends and
neighbours and co-workers‟.

21. Building social capital
Mark Granovetter, „The Strength of Weak Ties‟ (1973)

22. Building social capital
How is social media creating new forms of social capital?
1. Collaborative consumption: web-enabled „weak tie‟ networks
2. DIY social activism: web-enabled „weak/strong tie‟ solidarity networks

23. Peoples and multitudes
Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)
Leviathan (1651)
• The social contract: members of the warring
multitude forge a „contract‟ with the sovereign
• Individuals trade their „natural right‟ to wage
war in exchange for security and civil order
The result:
1. Social order has a contractual basis. The
social contract is motivated by fear
2. In forging a social contract, the multitude
becomes a unified „people‟ (under law)

24. Peoples and multitudes
Benedict de Spinoza (1632-1677)
• No social contract: members of the multitude
collaborate for the sake of mutual benefit
• Bound together by social capital
The result:
1. Social order has an affective basis. The
motivation for participation and engagement
is love (common sense of empowerment)
2. A multitude is never established as a „people‟.
Multitudes emerge under specific conditions

25. PHILOSOPHY AND SOCIAL MEDIA