Colette Murphy  

Professor Jacobs  

ENG 110  

10/11/2022 

According to the essay “Small Change” written in 2010 by Malcom Gladwell, personal connections and ties with activism used to be what was needed to “produce” change; but now with social media, it’s having a connection at all. Just look at the Black Out Tuesday, there were people participating in that trend that I didn’t even know were activists until they spoke up about it. And that was just the starting point for most, now I know people that I went to high school with that have planned and organized BLM protests right in the center of my hometown back in New Jersey. Friends, friends of friends, families, people I didn’t even know showed up- and I probably would have too if I weren’t up here. The author of “Small Change” proves my point further when he says how “[they] seem to believe that a Facebook friend is the same as a real friend,” which I couldn’t agree more with. I have so many online friends that have helped me develop my own opinions on politics and the ideas behind activism itself. About three years ago an online friend’s (now) ex-girlfriend and I (who I’m still friends with) told me to watch “Do the Right Thing,” a movie produced in 1988 starring Giancarlo Esposito. This is my favorite movie and I incorporate it into any essay I can, but finally it fits this one. This movie, through an online friend, helped me truly understand just how detrimental police can be to black neighborhoods. But I digress, in the end, connection with each other isn’t the only thing that people need in order to produce change.