Connections Case

Connections

The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell is about what makes a new product, television show, fashion, and a new kind of lifestyle can achieve its tipping point. In his book he talks about the different kind of people and how they are essential to a product to reach its tipping point. Such as connectors, mavens, and salesman. In the earlier chapters of the book he talks about the three rules of epidemics, the Law of the Few, the Stickiness Factor, and the Power of Context. He gives broad examples to go along with each of his three rules of epidemics. In his later chapters he gives examples and then he is able to show us the connections that they make.

In Mirconesia the suicide rates for teen males was skyrocketing. In the United States suicide rates for ages 15-24 was 22 per 100,000 on the island of Micronesia it was more than seven time higher at 160 per 100,000. The cause for the rates were unknown. The teen males were committing suicides over little things such as arguments and breakups. A couple years later in the United States a similar but not as serious epidemic was occurring the teen smoking rates were uncontrollably going up. An extraordinary rate of 73 percent more teen smokers had occurred despite efforts to cut down on teenage smoking. The connections between Micronesia and the United States is obvious. In both countries the teen doing the act was influenced to do it. The teens saw or heard about someone older and who they thought was cool doing it so they did it in order to fit in. For example a 11 year old boy was found unconscious hanging himself. Later explained that he did not want to kill himself he just wanted to try hanging. He did this because kids were being warned to commit suicide and kids always want to do what they are told not to. This similar to the government and parents telling their kids not smoke in the United States. This means that it is not cool