Social behavior is a complex of behavioral patterns typical for most of society at a particular time. There are several types of them, but they all are characterized by a lack of specific structure, even in the case of deliberately organized movements. It is due to many different influences between all social movement’s members. If they are not directed by some external or internal motivational force, such as political will or money, which organizes them, they are easy to dissolve eventually. The spread of the Internet and social media leads to massive changes in social movements’ creation, organization, and dissolving, allowing much quicker information exchange.
Social movements are various, and social media influence them all directly. Uncontrolled movements are initiated by some changes in the world, which are influential for people: for example, financial crises, wars, or even some rumors about important events. Such rumors can even be not true: the prominent example was the case with Sony and Apple in 2010. There were a lot of posts on Facebook and other social media about hypothetical plans of Apple to acquire Sony ( Types of Collective Behavior – Introduction to Sociology: Understanding and Changing the Social World , 2016). They were not true but led to a rise in Sony’s stock price, which depicts how easily social behavior may change under strong stimuli and due to quick spreading.
Thus, one can see that social media made social movements much easier to create and much easier to dissolve. They facilitate information exchange, and therefore, all events may become known to many people rapidly via social media posts, online news, and blogs. The consequence is that the social movement, created in response to a stimulus, such as rumors about a large company, will be formed instantly, and its consequences will reveal very quickly, too.