A
flash mob (or
flashmob) is a
large group of people who assemble suddenly in a
public place, perform an unusual action for a
brief time, then quickly disperse. The term
flash mob is
generally applied only to gatherings organized via
telecommunications,
social media, or
viral
emails. The term is generally not applied to events organized
by
public relations firms or as
publicity stunts.
Origins
The first flash mob
The first
flash mob was created 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.
Wasik avoided such
problems during the second flash mob, which occurred on 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.
More than 100 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 15 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".
The Vancouver Sun wrote,
"It may have backfired on him... [Wasik] may instead have ended up
giving conformity a vehicle that allowed it to appear
nonconforming."
Precursors
Flash mobs began as a form of
performance art. While they started as an
apolitical act, flash mobs may share superficial similarities to
political
demonstrations. 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 similar
to flash mobs. With the invention of popular and very inexpensive
teleportation, an argument at a
shopping mall – which happens to be covered by a news crew –
quickly swells into a riot. In the story, broadcast coverage
attracts 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
happen. Commenting on the social impact of such mobs, one character
(articulating the police view) says, "We call them flash crowds,
and we watch for them." In related short stories, they are named as
a prime location for illegal activities (such as pickpocketing and
looting) to take place.
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. The term was inspired by the earlier term
smart mob.
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.” 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; a collaborative Internet
denial of service attack; a collaborative
supercomputing demonstration; and
promotional appearances by a pop musician. The press has also used
the term
flash mob to refer to 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.
19th century usage
In 19th
century 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 19th century 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.
Notable flash mobs
Worldwide Pillow Fight Day
Worldwide Pillow Fight Day (or International Pillow Fight Day) was
a
pillow fight flash mob that
took place on
March 22,
2008. Over 25 cities around the globe participated in
the first "international flash mob", which was the world's largest
flash mob to date.
According to The Wall Street Journal, more
than 5,000 participated in New York City
, overtaking London
's 2006
Silent Disco gathering as the largest
recorded flash mob. Word spread via social networking sites,
including
Facebook,
Myspace, private
blogs, public
forums, personal websites, as well as by word of mouth, text
messaging, and email.
Participating cities included Barcelona
, Basel
, Beirut
, Boston
, Budapest
, Chicago
, Copenhagen
, Dubai
, Dublin
, Dundee
, Houston
, Innsbruck
, London, Los Angeles
, Madrid
, Melbourne
, Monterrey
, New York
City, Paris
, Pécs
, Shanghai, San Francisco
, Stockholm
, Sydney
, Vancouver
, Washington,
D.C.
, and Zurich.
Silent disco
Another example of a well known flash mob was the April 2006
silent disco in London. At various
London Underground stations,
people gathered with their portable music devices, and at a set
time began dancing to their music.
It was reported that more than 4,000
people participated at London Victoria station
. This impacted the regular service of the
system enough for the city's police to begin crowd control and
slowly clear people. Though no one was arrested, it was reported
that the City of London pledged to counter future disruption of the
underground system. Since 2006, there have been several flash mobs
in the London Underground, including subsequent silent discos
comparable in size.
See also
Notable flash mobs
References
Further reading
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