What is the relationship between personal change and social change?

Liuting Deng

Basic Composition

Reagan Lothes

2019/11/13

Not a single thing can be considered completely permanent since everything changes through time which in turn changes the way individuals experience life alterations. People change the way they think and behave. 5 Mallchange and Return to Hayneville are two articles discuss about change of society and personality. In 5 Mallchange, the author, Malcolm Gladwell, talks about that the internet changed the way people join in activism. People used to participate movement with high risk since they have to join in physically. However, through the appearance of social media, people are able to stand for their belief online and not attend any movement in real life. This change causes the result that the organizations are weaker than in the past and less people are willing to sacrifice for their belief. In another article, Gregory Orr narrative his personal story when he was young. He describes the time when he was a teen and join in civil rights movement to support his belief. At that time, he still stay in the organization even though he has been caught in the jail. However, he left the organization at the end of his story because he realized that the way he sacrifice is meaningless. He is not able to change society. Both articles discuss the social activism and personal states. Whether personal change affect social change or social change affect personal change is important.The relationships of social change and personal change are complex, since they are interconnected with each other, and they can both be affected by emotional states.

Personal change impact social change in the way people are easily affected by the people around them, and when a lot of people are influenced, it became a social trend. Gladwell gave the example that “ it was McNeil who brought up the idea of a sit-in at Woolworth’s.” (Page 6) McNeil is the leader of Greensboro Four. He creates this idea and he persuades his close friends who are in the same high school and college with him to do so with him. Gladwell describes this close relationships as strong ties which connect them tightly in a movement. This example shows that the power of one person to change the society. McNeill as the leader of this movement brings up the idea which starts a social change since as more people are exposed to his ideas it will increase others willingness to participate in the movement. The increasing number of people in the movement leads to a social change. A similar idea indicated by Orr in his article as well. Orr tells readers that “ when I was sixteen, in my senior year of high school, I became involved in the civil rights movement partly because I hoped I could lose myself in that worthwhile work.” By saying this, Orr means that he wants to escape from the tragedy in the past and he is willing to sacrifice himself to the movement. The word “lost” reveals that he is willing to become a martyr in order to forget what happened in the past and to achieve a meaningful life. This is also an example that changing personal thought would affect the society. The reasons Orr joined in the movement are he wants to lose himself in a busy life and he truly believe what the movement fighting for. Personal change leads to social change through relationships due to the fact that as individuals change their perspectives and goals they change their social networks. Then as the social group gets bigger, it has the ability to become a social change.

Social change also affect personal change, since the belief change when they experience more. Orr have changed his mind in this many years involved in the movement. He described that “ I had dreamed of meaningful work and even heroic martyrdom, but here I was merely cannon fodder.” ( page 7). In other words, Orr finds out that he thinks the way he fights for civil rights is meaningless, since he is only an outside agitator of the movement. He will never become a martyr he wish to be if he keeps doing what he did. His changed his mind because he knows more and have more experience to distinguish what things he really want to gain. Therefore, when the people find out that the outcomes of social change disobey the willing of them, they will change their personal thoughts directly. Gladwell indicated similar idea that “ Facebook activism succeeds not by motivating people to make a real sacrifice but by motivating to do the things that people do when they are not motivated enough to make a real sacrifice.” (Page 7) What Gladwell means here is that people are willing to change their mind if they agree with the topic or if they think doing so is not too difficult for them. In this case, many people are willing to donate online, because a lot of people doing so, individuals tend to adapt to their surroundings. In these situations, people model social trends through personal development however they are still creating awareness and helping the social movement. Personal change is affected by social perspectives because they either realize their attitudes have shifted from what they originally thought or they become even more passionate about their original stance. By engaging in social issues, people begin to change their characters at the same time to form as a more complex and thoughtful identity.

Both personal change and social change are affected by the emotions or thoughts of people. The root of change is human beings, because no matter what things change it need people physically to achieve. Orr said that “ laughing at how my life went on past this town and blossomed into its possibilities, one of which (shining in the dark) was love.” (Page 13). One of the reasons Orr wants to leave the organization is that he desires a lovely life. Love is the motivation for him to change. He does not want to be a “weapon” to fight. He desires his own life and want to live like a normal people. Same thing in the social change. The motivation of social change is love, “It was like a fever. Everyone wants to go.”(page 2, Gladwell). As we knowing about the background in this case, black students are discriminated in the campus. They do not own the same rights as other white students owned. Therefore they formed a civil rights movement to fighting for equal rights. The root of this change is also love. Those students are pursuing a love and peace society where no violence exists. People form social activism to change society because they see the weakness of society and want our society to become better. Thus, we are able to conclude that the origin of both personal change and social change is love. Love makes people and society became better.

The relationships could never be simple since social change and personal change are constantly interacting with each other. Personal change affect social change because the strong ties exist in the society which means every person could affect by their close friends and every single person consist of a whole society. Personal change also affected by social change because people gain more knowledge and experiences through the social change and they may change their mind because they become more informed. Finally, there is evidence to prove that both personal change and social change are motivated by love. These changes occur because people desire to have love as well as spread it. These factors are important to take into consideration because it well help to understand the relationship between society, the individual, and the power of love.