Flash mob

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A downtown Toronto pillow fight flash mob.

A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief period of time, then quickly disperse.

Origins

The first flash mob

The first flash mob was organized in Manhattan in May 2003, by Bill Wasik, senior editor of Harper's Magazine. The origins of the flash mobs were unknown until Wasik published an article about his creation in the March 2006 edition of Harper's. The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather.[1] Wasik avoided such problems during the second flash mob, which occurred in June 3, 2003 at Macy's department store, by sending participants to preliminary staging areas—in four prearranged Manhattan bars—where they received further instructions about the ultimate event and location just before the event began.[2]

More than one hundred people converged upon the ninth floor rug department of the store, gathering around an expensive rug. Anyone approached by a sales assistant was advised to say that the gatherers lived together in a warehouse on the outskirts of New York, that they were shopping for a "love rug", and that they made all their purchase decisions as a group.

Subsequently, 200 people flooded the lobby and mezzanine of the Hyatt hotel in synchronized applause for about fifteen seconds, and a shoe boutique in SoHo was invaded by participants pretending to be tourists on a bus trip.

Wasik claimed that he created flash mobs as a social experiment designed to poke fun at hipsters and to highlight the cultural atmosphere of conformity and of wanting to be an insider or part of "the next big thing."

Precursors

Flash mobs may bear certain superficial similarities to political demonstrations, although flash mobs were originally intended to be specifically apolitical, and generally remain so, concentrating more on activities expressed as a form of performance art. Flash mobs can be seen as a specialized form of smart mob, which is a term and concept forwarded by author Howard Rheingold in his 2002 book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.

Literary precedents

In 1973, the story Flash Crowd by Larry Niven described a concept vaguely similar to flash mobs. It described how, with the invention of popular teleportation, an argument at a shopping mall, which happened to be covered by a news crew, swells into a riot. The broadcast coverage attracted the attention of other people, who use the widely available technology of the teleportation booth to swarm first that event — thus intensifying the riot — and then other events as they happened. In actuality, flash crowds are used to start up and heighten riots. When a riot begins and is televised, others join in, resulting in the participation of millions of people. Commenting on the social impact of such mobs, one character in Niven's story, articulating the police view, says, "We call them flash crowds, and we watch for them."

The 1998 novel Distraction by Bruce Sterling features a riot by a flash mob in its opening pages, although the term is not used, and the flash mob riot is only a very peripheral element of the plot.

Use of the term

The first recorded use of the term flash mob was in 2003 in a blog entry posted in the aftermath of Wasik's event.[2][3][4] The term was inspired by the earlier term smart mob.[3]

Webster's New Millennium Dictionary of English defines flash mob as “a group of people who organize on the Internet and then quickly assemble in a public place, do something bizarre, and disperse.”[5] This definition is consistent with the original use of the term; however, both news media and promoters have subsequently used the term to refer to any form of smart mob, including political protests;[6] a collaborative Internet denial of service attack;[7] a collaborative supercomputing demonstration;[8] and promotional appearances by a pop musician.[9] The press has also used the term flash mob to refer a practice being used in China where groups of shoppers arrange online to meet at a store at the same time in order to drive a collective bargain with the store owner.[10]

1800s usage

In 1800s Tasmania, the term flash mob was used to describe a subculture consisting of female prisoners, based on the term flash language for the jargon that these women used. The 1800s Australian term flash mob referred to a segment of society, not an event, and showed no other similarities to the modern term flash mob or the events it describes.[11]

Notable instances of flash mobs

Silent discos

Silent discos have attracted the largest flash mob gatherings to date. A "silent rave" at Victoria Station, London involved 4,000 participants[12] On 30 November 2006 another big event took place at Paddington station in the United Kingdom.[13] with more than 3,500 people in attendance.

China

Flash mob activity has occurred in the capital Beijing.[14]

See also

References

  1. ^ Goldstein, Lauren (2003-08-10). "The Mob Rules". Time Europe (18 April 2003 issue). 162 (7). ISSN 0040-781X. OCLC 1767509. Retrieved 2007-03-14. {{cite journal}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ a b Wasik, Bill (March 2006). "My Crowd, or, Phase 5: A report from the inventor of the flash mob" (Subscription). Harper's Magazine: pp. 56-66. ISSN 0017-789X. OCLC 4532730. Retrieved 2007-02-02. {{cite journal}}: |pages= has extra text (help)
  3. ^ a b McFedries, Paul (2003-07-14). "flash mob". WordSpy.com. Logophilia Limited. Retrieved 2006-03-14. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Savage, Sean (2003-06-16). "Flash Mobs Take Manhattan". cheesebikini. Retrieved 2007-03-14.
  5. ^ "flash mob". Webster's New Millennium™ Dictionary of English, Preview Edition (v 0.9.6). Retrieved 2007-04-27.
  6. ^ "Putin protest by flash mob". BBC News. 2004-02-28. Retrieved 2007-05-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ Musil, Steven (2005-02-11). "This week in Web threats: The Internet is always good for a little fear and loathing". CNET News. CNET. Retrieved 2007-05-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Biever, Celeste (2004-03-29). "A Flash mob to attempt supercomputing feat". New Scientist. ISSN 0262-4079 OCLC 2378350. Retrieved 2007-05-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ Gardner, Elysa (2004-02-27). "Avril Lavigne, in the flesh, at 'flash mob' appearances". USA Today. Retrieved 2007-05-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  10. ^ "China's new shopping craze: 'Team buying'". Christian Science Monitor. 2007-12-05. Retrieved 2008-02-12. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  11. ^ "The Flash Mob". Cascades Female Factory Historic Site. Female Factory Historic Site Ltd. Retrieved 2007-10-23.
  12. ^ Stewart, Tim (2007-04-05). "4,000 flash mob dancers startle commuters at Victoria". Evening Standard. Retrieved 2007-05-03. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  13. ^ "The biggest flash mob ever". Associated Newspapers Ltd. December 1, 2006. Retrieved 2007-05-26.]
  14. ^ ""Flashmob" of 12 Proposed to One Girl in Beijing". CRIEnglish.com. 2006-09-03. Retrieved 2007-05-03. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |date= (help) This is a typical media report.
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