Flash Mobs are so much Fun

Flash mobs are one of the most fun and entertaining innovations that have come out of using mobile technology. It promotes a system of gathering that perpetuates a more organized and efficient way to have messages spread through the masses. The idea is for the organization to be effective, swift, and untraceable. Stephanie M. put it best when she wrote, “Flash mobs and smart mobs allow an empowerment of the members because they feel like they belong to an organization, and the members of flash mobs get a laugh after causing a public scene and entertaining the people who encounter one of their meetings.”

In the past I have received e-mails from friends or “promotion teams” for an event called “party train”. An e-mail in addition to text messages were sent to party kids across NYC on the same day the event was to occur, it included a time, train line, and car number, or hint to indicate where to gather. At the chime of the train doors, DJ’s and their friends flooded the train car with a few pieces of sound equipment, people of the group emerged and began to dance and for the next few stops on the line, more people filled that same car. The gathering took place on a train line that is less frequented by riders at 3 o'clock in the morning and is always located in the to second last car. The party dosen’t last very long, but is much fun. With the use of mobile technology, the public sphere, some spontaneity and the mind frame that anything can possibly happen, it sounds like a flash mob to me- and until now, I didn’t consider party train anything else other than a quick party. (There was a beer commercial which aired showing a depiction of a party train, if you remember.)

Again, at anti war protests during the summer, I recall people desperately reaching for their cell phones once crowd blockades were discovered along the route. Text messaging also seemed to play an important role in keeping protesters close together, and out of trouble.

Our generation defiantly has an advantage through the use of such technologies. How many times has your cell phone helped you out of a jam, and afterwards you wonder, if it weren’t for your phone, how would you have gotten through it. People in our parents generation would have found a way to survive a situation, rather than talking their way out of it. My mother is constantly reminding me of how much easier I have it, in the sense that I have constant communication between school, friends and family etc. Refer to Imbar’s story which involves a work relationship between herself and an older women journalist, working for the NYT. The generation gap in addition with a technology gap all leads to a miscommunication.

Wikipedia tries its best to avoid any kind of miscommunication or mis leading information, it gets updated every second, and knowledge is easily accessible. Flash mobs has been described as performance art, a cultural event, a fad, a phenomenon, or simply belonging to a crowd, read a few brief articles to form your own opinion.