Tweets don’t change anything
Social media can provoke and sustain protest in remarkable ways. Hashtag activists are all around us, fighting for their causes. And yet, their efforts don’t seem to cohere into any real transformation. The Quiet Before: On The Unexpected Origins of Radical Ideas by Gal Beckerman is about how societies actually change, how new arguments hatch and grow, and how they shape events.
Social media platforms are great for striking poses, and for setting compelling narratives. They agitate and draw people together. But change calls for deliberation, not just declaration. These platforms are no good at the next stage, of people meeting and talking, hammering out ideology and organisation, the slow gathering of power. The incubation of transformative ideas needs a quiet, hidden space, which isn’t easy to find in a “too-loud flat world”, says the book. Social media can “only allow ideas to flare and return to darkness”.
Social media platforms are great for striking poses, and for setting compelling narratives. They agitate and draw people together. But change calls for deliberation, not just declaration. These platforms are no good at the next stage, of people meeting and talking, hammering out ideology and organisation, the slow gathering of power. The incubation of transformative ideas needs a quiet, hidden space, which isn’t easy to find in a “too-loud flat world”, says the book. Social media can “only allow ideas to flare and return to darkness”.