Editing Flash mob (section)

===First flash mob===
[[Image:First Sydney flash mob, August 2003.jpg|thumb|left|Flash mobbing was quickly imitated outside of the United States. This picture is of "sydmob" 2003, the first flash mob held in [[Sydney]], [[Australia]].]]

The first flash mobs were created in [[Manhattan]] in 2003, by [[Bill Wasik]], senior editor of ''[[Harper's Magazine]]''.<ref name="fibre" /><ref name="cnn3" /><ref name="Wasik2">{{cite magazine | first = Bill | last = Wasik | title = #Riot: Self-Organized, Hyper-Networked Revolts—Coming to a City Near You | url = https://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/12/ff_riots/all/1 | magazine = [[Wired (magazine)|Wired]] |date=January 2012 | access-date =January 22, 2012 }}</ref>  The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather.<ref name="time">{{cite magazine | first = Lauren | last = Goldstein | title = The Mob Rules | date = August 10, 2003 | magazine = Time | url =https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,474547,00.html| access-date =May 8, 2021 | volume = 162 | issue = 7 - April 18, 2003 | issn = 0040-781X | oclc = 1767509 }}</ref> Wasik avoided such problems during the first successful flash mob, which occurred on June 17, 2003, at [[Macy's]] department store, by sending participants to preliminary staging areas—in four Manhattan bars—where they received further instructions about the ultimate event and location just before the event began.<ref name="Wasik">{{cite magazine | first = Bill | last = Wasik | title = My Crowd, or, Phase 5: A report from the inventor of the flash mob | url = http://harpers.org/archive/2006/03/my-crowd/1/ | format = Subscription | magazine = [[Harper's Magazine]] | pages = 56–66 |date=March 2006 | volume = March 2006 | access-date =February 2, 2007 | issn = 0017-789X | oclc = 4532730 }}</ref>

More than 130 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.<ref>Bedell, Doug. "E-mail Communication Facilitates New 'Flash Mob' Phenomenon", Knight Ridder Tribune Business News, July 23, (2003)</ref> 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.<ref name="cnn3" />

Wasik claimed that he created flash mobs as a [[social experiment]] designed to poke fun at [[Hippie |hippies]] and to highlight the cultural atmosphere of [[conformity]] and of wanting to be an insider or part of "the next big thing".<ref name="cnn3" /> ''[[The Vancouver Sun]]'' wrote, "It may have backfired on him&nbsp;... [Wasik] may instead have ended up giving conformity a vehicle that allowed it to appear nonconforming."<ref name="VCS">{{cite news |url=http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=f4b1b51f-1340-46b3-8c14-97405c63b5fe |title=Waterfight in Stanley Park, but are flash mobs starting to lose their edge? |publisher=[[Canwest Publishing Inc]] |last=McMartin |first=Pete |date=July 12, 2008 |access-date=July 14, 2008 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080714033940/http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=f4b1b51f-1340-46b3-8c14-97405c63b5fe |archive-date=July 14, 2008  }}</ref> In another interview he said "the mobs started as a kind of playful social experiment meant to encourage spontaneity and big gatherings to temporarily take over commercial and public areas simply to show that they could".<ref name="FMR">{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/25/us/25mobs.html|title=Mobs Are Born as Word Grows by Text Message|author=Ian Urbina|date=March 24, 2010|work=[[The New York Times]]| access-date=December 30, 2010}}</ref>