FLASH MOBS

Flash Mobs



Flash Mobs

In the summer of 2003, the new media began to report on a new fad called "flash mobs," which some critics label superficial entertainment and others recognize as artistic events or experiments in social organization. The term "flash" can indicate a sudden although brief burst and the term "mob" can refer to a riotous, many times lawless crowd. According to most accounts, for example the San Francisco Chronicle reporting on a flash mob event that took place in a local park, large seemingly spontaneous crowds gather to do some trivial task or play some silly game and then quickly disperse (Singer, 1983). These flash mobs are organized primarily by artists using e-mail, weblogs (personal diaries on the web) and word of mouth (via cell phones). Precise instructions as to time and place are sent out over e-mail and cell phone while final instructions explaining what exactly will be done are given when everyone gathers. But it is the use of the cellular telephone (cell phone) and what is being called "mobility media" that has critics interested in flash mobs as both an artistic expression and a social protest.

The main criteria are that the group (the mob) both gathers and disperses quickly, which is where the modifier "flash" comes from. But some critics claim that flash mobs have relevant political and cultural implications as performance art and as a form of social revolution (Rheingold. 2000). Rheingold, for example, points out that social activists have been using cell phones to organize political protests for some time now. For example, the Seattle protesters against the World Trade Organization used cell phones to organize. Rafael reports that cell phones played a key role in the January 2001 protests in the Philippines, where a spontaneous mob was organized using cell phones ...