The Tipping Point- Response 4

ATTENTION:  To whom it may concern - the content below may contain information involving Justin Bieber.  Please continue with caution…

I woke up one rainy Monday morning, looked outside my window to see a painfully drab Bethlehem skyline.  My head was aching, my throat was sore from the whopping cough that kept me awake the night before, my nose was running, and my eyes were so swollen they could pop.  Not to mention I had a fever of 102.  If you hadn’t guessed it by now, I had the flu, to say the least, and as hard as I tried, I could not muster up enough strength to get out of bed that rainy morning to attend class (and trust me it was in everyone’s best interest that I was not there).  However, I did both understand and respect the unexcused absence policy so I took the proper measures to avoid being penalized, and so I spent most of that week in bed surrounded by tissues and soup.  My mom was right when she said; chicken soup is the cure for everything. 

I couldn’t help but think about a virus in its simplest form.  A virus is a parasitic agent that gets passed along from host to host, usually causing an unfortunate outbreak or epidemic (in this case the virus was the flu).  Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point epitomizes this theory.  He explains how ideas, trends and products get passed along, just as an uncontrollable virus would spread. By the time I personally recovered from the flu, more than half the student body was out due to illness.  A mini-epidemic was in fact created on Lehigh’s campus.  People were dropping like flies.  One by one, my roommates contracted the virus, and who knows who they may have passed it on to themselves. 

“The tipping point is the biography of an idea, and the idea is very simple.  It is that the best way to understand the emergence of fashion trends, the ebb and the flow of crime waves, or, for that matter, the transformation of unknown books into best sellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word or mouth, or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life is to think of them as epidemics.  Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do.”

Gladwell uses the word “contagious” to better explain his theory.  Just as people catch a cold, people catch onto ideas, onto fashion, crime, and so on.  In essence, epidemics are contagious.  They are transmittable.  They are spread from one person to another.  According to Gladwell, epidemics are the backbone to his tipping point theory, which refers to the moment when everything changes, the moment in an epidemic where there is a climax. 

In the afore mentioned paragraphs the example I chose to exemplify an epidemic was the flu, but as I clearly explained, epidemics can take on any form.  Bieber Fever has become an epidemic and the musical pop star, Justin Bieber, has maintained a loyal following (yes, I had to mention Bieber once in my paper, and I really hope this does not result in an F) and if I’m understanding Gladwell’s theory correctly, the tipping point was when Usher took Bieber’s already viral YouTube videos and turned him into a musical sensation. 

To better understand the concept of a tipping point however, you must understand the three characteristics of an epidemic.  Gladwell’s book in its entirety is based on three central rules all of which are key concepts in this viral phenomenon; the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context.   Go back to the ‘Beiber’ example mentioned earlier (just go with it, please I beg of you).  Although I do not know the specifics of how this individual went from prepubescent-teen to pop-star sensation, I do know however, that Gladwell and his Law of the Few, played a vital role in Bieber’s going viral. 

With regards to the Law of the Few, in my opinion, Usher simultaneously acted as the connector, the maven and the salesman.  Gladwell said it perfectly, “What Mavens and Connectors and Salesman do to an idea in order to make it contagious is to alter it in such a way that extraneous details are dropped and others are exaggerated is that the message itself comes to acquire a deeper meaning.”  Usher acted as the connector by introducing him to the right people, helping him to build relationships and network in the music industry.  He acted as the maven, by helping him to make informed decisions, guiding him and acting as a mentor.  And to no surprise, Usher acted as the salesman as well, persuading the masses to give Bieber’s music a chance. 

Gladwell’s second rule of epidemics, also helping ‘the biebs’ attain unimaginable popularity is the Stickiness Factor.  Bieber’s music, famed hair, and adorable personality “stuck” in the minds of the mass public, helping him to gain an undeniably positive reputation.  His unusual story and journey to stardom has left a lasting impression, particularly in about 99 percent of 15-year-old girls.  Long story short, he was memorable.

Power of Context.  This is Gladwell’s third rule of epidemics, the rule that pushes the epidemic over its tipping point, institutionalizing change.  According to Gladwell, the context of the epidemic needs to be conducive to change, otherwise the change will not occur.  Bieber’s fame exploded during the era of the Internet, giving him access to a multitude of environmental factors that would help to push his fame over the edge.  Because of the Internet, his intimate fan base exceeded Gladwell’s lucky number of 150 and he was able to expand his reach. 

So, like a virus, Justin Bieber turned into a cultural phenomenon.  Malcolm Gladwell was adamant that ideas get spread rapidly, and through the three afore mentioned characteristics of an epidemic, the Biebs went viral.

DISCLAIMER: For those like do not like Justin Bieber (I will not name names) I want you to know I do not judge.  I used his story to better express my understanding of Gladwell’s Tipping Point Theory.  

Here Comes Everybody - Response 3

What is a revolution?  According to Clay Shirky, author of the eye-opening book “Here Comes Everybody,” a revolution can be described as a change in society that dictates the way we think, act and behave.  Specifically, the development and integration of new media technologies into society, has spearheaded some of the greatest revolutions in our history.  This can be seen through the introduction of the Internet, which has jumpstarted a digital revolution within our own generation. 

The printing press, the telephone, and broadcast also pioneered revolutions of their own kind, but according to Shirky, it was the Internet has afforded us the opportunity to access a multimedia forum, holding the contents of previous revolutions in one communal place.  It is here that people can consume and distribute media including music, movies and conversations, all in one location, unlike any other medium in society.

“For the first time, young people are watching less television than their elders. They’re substituting computers, mobile phones and other internet-enabled devices, and generating media instead of just consuming it.” (Clay Shirky, The Globalist)

Shirky claims the Internet has caused what he calls, the largest increase in human expressive capability in history, rivaling the introduction of the printing press and telephone. Among the different media revolutions, the Internet is the first to naturally promote group-forming, which is the foundation of this digitally-revolutionizing book.  The Internet moves us into a world of two-way groups, where consumers are producers and producers are consumers.  According to Shirky, collaboration is the backbone to this social transformation.

“Collaborative production, where people have to coordinate with one another to get anything done, is considerably harder than simple sharing, but the results can be more profound.  New tools allow large groups to collaborate, by taking advantage of nonfinancial motivations and by allowing for wildly differing levels of contribution.”

Collaboration requires the synchronization of individuals within a group to successfully build a multimedia platform.  Wikipedia is one such example, showing collaboration at its finest, but since we have already had an in depth discussion about Wikipedia and as not to deviate too much from Shirky, I will spare you the Wikipedia shpeel, but please consider the importance in terms of collaboration.

Now shift your attention to another facet of the revolution; sharing. Where do I begin?  According to Shirky a shift has occurred in society with regards to the exchange of information.  Prior to this idea of “group-forming,” people would congregate together in an effort to share information, but the Internet has in essence flipped this relationship and given us forums to share information first.  Now, people can share, and then aggregate.  Essentially, the Internet has allowed you to discover who you have things in common with, and therefore has made the sharing process, a platform for coordination.  Web sites such as Flickr, Facebook, and Youtube, promote this kind of reversed-sharing and have thus lowered the barriers of entry.

“Flickr is the source of sharing.  What it did instead was to let the users label (or tag) their photos as a way of arranging them.  When two or more photos adopted the same tag, those photos were automatically linked.  The users were linked as well; the shared tag became a potential stepping stone from one user to another, adding a social dimension to the simple act of viewing.”  (pg 33)

Flickr is just one of many group-sharing Web sites that promotes a broad public interest, allowing people to aggregate themselves among one another.  It   essentially engages groups.

Not too long ago, I came face-to-face (or should I say screen-to-screen) with the idea Shirky refers to as reverse-sharing.  I was fortunate enough to have been given the opportunity to spend a semester in Barcelona, Spain and prior to my departure, I stumbled onto a Facebook group called “Barcelona Spring 2010.”  It was through this forum that I connected with a multitude of people in the same position as myself: anxious, excited, and petrified of the unknowns.  This Facebook page, allowed the collective group to post photographs, articles, YouTube videos and comments and concerns, about a common interest.  In this case, the commonality was Barcelona.  This is Shirky’s idea of sharing at its finest.  The posting on Facebook came first, and connecting under a common interest came second. 

Everything mentioned thus far has been centered around the sole idea that cooperation among a group is essential in successfully using the Internet as a tool of communication, and it is through this idea that collective action was born.  Collective action is the cooperation of a group to collectively produce change.

“Information sharing produces shared awareness among the participants, and collaborative production relies on shared creation, but collective action creates shared responsibility, by tying the users identity to the identity of the group.” (pg 51)

Facebook promotes collective action, as seen through its many targeted pages.  If you choose to “like” something, you are given updates and access to information you otherwise would not receive.  You can essentially communicate with people of similar interests on these targeted pages, and through this communication you can develop a “shared vision strong enough to bind the group together.”

Collective action is thus the culmination of Shirky’s ideas, as it begins with a technological revolution and ends with a social one.