The Tipping Point Review
The Tipping Point
by Malcolm Gladwell discusses and explains how some ideas become trends and why
others don’t. Gladwell, through the use of many comparisons and research
compares how some ideas affect the society differently than others. In many
instances he compares the characteristics of social change to a medical
epidemic. The tipping point, as Gladwell proclaims, is when an idea or trend
becomes a popular phenomenon at an extremely fast rate.
Throughout
the book Gladwell uses different situations to illustrate his point. He
discusses why teenage smoking is still popular even though the negative effects
are still known. Through different comparisons Gladwell describes the process
of an idea gaining popularity and reaching it’s “tipping point.”
In a world where
ideas are spreading like wildfire, some ideas gain popularity and some die off
before they ever come to life. Gladwell makes the point that if you look at
every successful trend they are more similar than you may think. Gladwell
breaks down the “rules of epidemics” into three separate parts to determine if
an idea will gain popularity and become a social trend. The three parts include
the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context.
The Law of the Few
is the first rule in which only a few people are responsible for spreading a
single idea. This is later compared to only a few people being held responsible
for the spreading of STD’s to various others. These are the people who help the
trends start and continue to spread. They are the people who start to gain
popularity in small groups. If people continue to stand behind a product or
idea it is more likely to be successful.
The idea behind
The Stickiness Factor is that an idea continues to influence people’s behavior.
Gladwell uses different children TV shows such as “Blue’s Clues” and “Sesame Street” to explain this phenomenon. Research that showed the logic, reasoning
and literacy improvement helped the show to “stick.” It’s what gets people to
continue to be attached to an idea or product.
The last idea, the
Power of Context, is important to the future of an idea or product. Gladwell
claims this is crucial to an idea gaining popularity and reaching the tipping
point. He compares the Power of Context to the decrease in crime rates in 1990s
New York City. The idea behind this factor is that various changes, big or
small, can make change societies behavior. In his comparison to the crime rate,
Gladwell believes that because city authorities made minor improvements to the
city in turn led to a decline in the crime rates.
The main idea
behind Gladwell’s research is figuring out how to get your ideas and products
to influence change in society. In the book the process behind what makes ideas
either succeed or fail is investigated extensively. Different factors and
social patterns play a role in how successful an idea may be. The end goal of
everyone’s idea should be to have his or her idea reach the tipping point.
