Meg OHearn

9/18/17

Puzzle Pieces

How can a small social issue become a widely talked about problem overnight? The

answer is these people called connectors who are spread throughout everyones day to day lives.

The Tipping Point is a novel regarding when an idea finally tips and becomes a large trend

quickly. It describes a sort of domino effect that happens, causing an epidemic in many different

groups. The traits of a connector that are essential and the most important to make a social issue

tip are knowing a lot of people, being able to reach a large group of people in a short amount of

time, and being a part of many different social groups.

In order to tip a social issue, connectors must have the ability to spread the word by

having connections with masses of people. In the book, it states that, The first and most

obvious criterion is that Connectors know lots of people. They are the kinds of people who

know everyone (Gladwell, 38). Everyone has met a connector at some point in their life, and

that is what gives the connectors their power to tip a social issue. An example in the novel of one

of the most well known connectors is Paul Revere. The book argues that Had Revere been given

a list of 250 surnames drawn at random from the Boston census of 1775, there is no question he

would have scored well over 100 (Page 57). Revere would have been able to know well over

100 of the surnames on the list, which does not even include people with the more uncommon

names not listed. This means he was vital in spreading information throughout towns or even

between social groups.

 The connectors throughout the world are the most important part of spreading an idea to

get it to large and diverse groups of people since people know and trust what they say. Since

Word-of-mouth epidemics are the work of Connectors (52), they have to be able to know

people closely as to be trusted by them. These word-of-mouth epidemics are when people like

connectors are able to climb their way into a social group so that when they tell any information

about something such as a social issue, the group will trust and believe them. They are a handful

of people with a truly extraordinary knack of making friends and acquaintances, (41) making it

easier for them over any other type of people to spread information quickly.

Finally, a fundamental element of a Connector is that they are a part of many different

social groups. As stated in the name, a connector is the type of person that can bring people

together that dont usually interact in their day to day lives. They are the types of people that

manage to occupy many different worlds and subcultures and niches, (48) which makes them

easily accessible to all. For example, if someone was a part of a book club while also being part

of a club soccer team, they would be able to spread word of something between two groups of

people that most likely would not otherwise see each other. They also have the effect of

bringing them all together, (51) so that all of these groups can spread social issues amongst

themselves after the connector brings up the idea.

Knowing a lot of people, being able to reach a large group of people quickly, and being in

many diverse social groups are all of the requirements of Connectors to tip a social issue. Social

issues are often ideas that start small and not a lot of people want to bring to light because of the

controversy they may cause. For one to tip, there are certain people spread throughout the world

whom connect all types of people. These people are the connectors and they carry a lot of clout
when it comes to spreading the right word until a social issue can go from being insignificant to

infamous within a short amount of time.

Citations:

-Gladwell, Malcolm. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. Abacus,
2015.