''one dramatic moment in an epidemic when everything can change all at once.’'
I had the pleasure of reading The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. His book emphasizes the importance of the little things. How these small chance occurrences shape our world and lead to that one bid idea, that could ultimately change our lives forever. Gladwell writes that the tipping point are like epidemics, in that they are contagious and help spread things easily. I like this idea and Gladwell made the metaphor throughout his book which made it very clear as a reader what he meant in this sort of abstract idea of a “tipping point”. Gladwell describes three different types of epidemics that lead to our tipping point: The law of the few, the stickiness factor, and the power of context. I personally thought the power of context was the most relevant but each theory proves to be different in explaining an idea of pervasive thought. In a world where viral videos and trends are all anyone talks about, having huge groups of people behind you and supporting an idea (specifically the number 150), was to me the most clear and effective in Gladwell’s writing. While his language is engaging and exciting to dissect as a reader, I thought at times it fell short of anything persuasive or rooted in solid foundation. His writing, although littered with science and reasoning, was a bit common sensical at times to read. His theories are what everyone has thought at some point but never really articulated on to paper. Which begs the question, does everything we think need to be documented? This idea occurred to me during the reading of this book and its relevance with fads. We as a society are obsessed with fads, and the “stickiness” of these ideas, simply because we desire the need to document everything we think or do. In an ironic sense, the book was now beginning to make itself clear to me. These little fads, little ideas, thoughts, and documented aspects of our life lead to one great tipping point; an idea I failed to see before. The real purpose of writing down these ideas, having blogs even, is to culminate into a revolution. We have seen revolutions in the past, and they all happen like science just the way Gladwell so eloquently writes. And they all boil down to the small fads that led to a cultural shift in thought. Everything we do and see on social media now a-days is preparing us for a tipping point in the future, according to Gladwell. Well, atlas thats what I got out of it. Gladwell goes on to give more scientific reasoning and examples, things like race relations and how they correspond to housing in this country. These tipping points can come from anywhere, but I like to read the book in a bigger picture sense. His words are a message to those out there that our voice does matter, that everything small thing we encounter has a ripple effect. Why not use this idea when we think about media and our blogs, write down what is important to you and cultivate your own tipping point of revolutionary thought for young people. That is my take away from this book I thought was going to be very different.
