Flash mobs and the mobilizing potential of internet

From thousands of people hitting each other with pillows, dance events and all sorts of mischievous behavior flash mobs seem to be becoming an increasingly popular and frequent event so I decided to share a little knowledge about what a flash mob is and what are its implications.

I will explain what flash mob is through my personal experience with it. It was a day at my faculty in Ljubljana Slovenia like any other I was talking to a friend and he mentions a few people from the faculty are organizing a flash mob I was curious what it is and he explained to me. I was added to a group on Facebook and asked to add anyone interested in the project so I asked my friends if anyone would be interested and they loved the idea. Soon they also posted the details of our little endeavor. On a specific day at a specific time we were supposed to gather close to the main crossing on the busiest street in the city at the rush hour and perform our little flash mob.

Photo: The crossing in the center of the city.

 Quite a large group of people gathered and on the first blow of a whistle we started moving to the crossing as casually looking as a group of this size could. While crossing the street we heard the second blow of the whistle it was our que everyone froze. I was looking at the goings on around me as much as I could without moving a muscle people were frozen in funny possess some barely restraining themselves from bursting out in laughter but motionless still. Though it was raining in a why it made the whole event even more interesting as everyday people were making our way between our umbrellas not knowing what was going on . There were people standing around also documenting the thing flashes were going of and videos were being filmed. There were people frozen as if they were frozen in time while falling down others kissing or pointing at things with the everyday crowd rushing between us. The drivers were starting to get angry honking their horns. About a minute later the third blow of the whistle came signaling the end of the flash mob and the crowd dispersed. I met the friends that I came to the flash mob and everyone was really excited and laughing even though the weather was bad the whole thing was a big success.

The video can be found here: http://www.dnevnik.si/novice/kultura/1042221993

Flash mob is an event some say artistic some call it a modern form of protest and some call it fun and crazy. It is an unusual event usually choreographed through the use of social networks or other new media sources where a large number of people who don’t know each other meet at certain spot and time and do a crazy thing all at once and then disperse. Some are local like the one I described while others reach global proportions like the international pillow fight on March 22, 2008.

It is close to the smart mob in the way it is organized through mass media resources but the result of a smart mob is a protest against authority. Many of the protests during the Arab spring were organized in this fashion. 

These events show the potential of internet. While flash mobs are mostly innocent ways of getting some fun out of your day they show how the new media has the potential of bringing a large group with similar interests together from all over the world. People today are connected more than ever through social networks sites and other means which the new media provides. And interest groups are playing a bigger and bigger role in the forming of our society and I think it also makes a good case for Raymon Williamses theory of society influencing technology and the other way around while people are the ones making decissions. The media provides the opprotunity for the people to contect but their common interest brings them together and its the actual people who transform the society through its use.