Response to Article Comparison Clay Shirky vs Malcolm Gladwell 11/10/2010

I agree with both of these articles and their representations but only in part and respectively to each one. Firstly I believe social networks such as Twitter, Myspace, Facebook, Digg etc. are nothing more than what they seem to be (a network in which many participants can become active on a social basis such as our human nature to interact with one another). It is my humble opinion that the glorification of such networks will inevitably lead to some crisis the moment one of these networks does not "respond" or "behave" in the manner that is expected. I don't believe that the idolization of such networks is particularly healthy and I certainly do not believe in nominating Twitter for the Nobel Peace Prize as if it laboured as Lester B. Pearson had during the Suez Crisis in the Mid-East or as Gandhi had in liberating India from the British without (quite laterally) hurting a fly. Now do not get me wrong I am a little sickened by this hyperbolic focus on social networks but I will give credit to where credit is due. I admit that the social networks are useful for rallying participation different groups of people, such participation is obvious in the cases such as Evan's quest to locate his missing friends phone or for a protest in Iran, or even planning a birthday party. However, these networks are slowly but surely beginning to replace the notion of original motivation. I am sure that whatever pressures existed in the Mid-East existed before people tried to organize a protest via Twitter. this notion of organization, participation being mistaken for motivation and a willful want to do something is dangerous and should be watched. It is, however, a heart warming story of how one man's determination to right the wrongs of other's was able to muster an army of sorts in order to achieve this. This demonstrates an important sense of web-based social community but trying to stretch it farther than that may be pushing it a little.