• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer, October 15, 2010

A few weeks ago I took issue with Malcolm Gladwell's article in The New Yorker attempting to debunk the notion that social media can enable "real" social activism, meaning risky confrontations with injustice involving existential danger. But Breast Cancer Awareness Month is doing a better job refuting Gladwell than I ever could, by inverting the stereotyped model of social activism he describes in his article.

According to Gladwell, online social media can't inspire people to risk their well-being for a cause because it is dominated by weak, superficial emotional bonds between people who don't really know each other. However a new social media initiative called "Sharethelittlethings.com," created by the CementBloc for Abraxis Bioscience turns this process inside out.

Sharethelittlethings.com invites women who are living with metastatic breast cancer, breast cancer survivors, and their loved ones to post comments with thoughts, advice, and encouragement on a virtual wall. Each time a visitor posts the wall at the Sharethelittlethings.com, Abraxis donates $1 to research to combat metastatic breast cancer. The initiative allows individuals affected by metastatic breast cancer to connect with each other, and visitors to share comments and posts via Facebook and Twitter tie-ins, including sharing and "like" buttons.

Although the site launched for Breast Cancer Awareness Month, it will continue to operate year-round as a communal resource for people affected by metastatic breast cancer.

The site is interesting in part because it provides a photo negative of the limited model which informs Gladwell's reductive, dismissive view of the potential for social media activism. Of course, this is due above all to the particular nature of the community being served by the site. Where Gladwell looks for close relationships inspiring people to put themselves in harm's way, ShareLittleThings.com connects strangers who have already been thrust in harm's way by disease. Where Gladwell sees emotional bonds leading people to risk dangerous confrontations, it's just as true that dangerous confrontations can lead to emotional bonds -- bond which can be quite strong, enabling the kind of organization and commitment necessary for "real" activism.

While the order of events differs, in both models the stakes are high (personal well-being) and the result is the same (an activist impulse). The key is that creating a national community and dialogue like Sharethelittlethings.com would basically be impossible without online social media.