Flash mob

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A flash mob (or flashmob)<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> is a group of people that assembles suddenly in a public place, performs for a brief time, then quickly disperses, often for the purposes of entertainment, satire, and/or artistic expression.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="COED">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Flash mobs may be organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.<ref name="wallstreet">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref name="nationalpost">Template:Cite news Template:Dead link</ref><ref name="fibre" /><ref name="abc">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="cnn3">Template:Cite news</ref>

The term, coined in 2003, is generally not applied to events and performances organized for the purposes of politics (such as protests), commercial advertisement, publicity stunts that involve public relation firms, or paid professionals.<ref name="fibre" /><ref name="manifesto">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> In these cases of a planned purpose for the social activity in question, the term smart mobs is often applied instead.

The term "flash rob" or "flash mob robberies", a reference to the way flash mobs assemble, has been used to describe a number of robberies and assaults perpetrated suddenly by groups of teenage youth.<ref name="FOXN1">Template:Cite news</ref><ref name="TIME3">Template:Cite magazine</ref><ref name="WIRED1">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Bill Wasik, originator of the first flash mobs, and a number of other commentators have questioned or objected to the usage of "flash mob" to describe criminal acts.<ref name="WIRED1" /><ref name="HUFFPO1">Template:Cite news</ref> Flash mobs have also been featured in some Hollywood movie series, such as Step Up.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

HistoryEdit

First flash mobEdit

File:First Sydney flash mob, August 2003.jpg

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">Template:Cite magazine</ref> The first attempt was unsuccessful after the targeted retail store was tipped off about the plan for people to gather.<ref name="time">Template:Cite magazine</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">Template:Cite magazine</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 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 ... [Wasik] may instead have ended up giving conformity a vehicle that allowed it to appear nonconforming."<ref name="VCS">Template:Cite news</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">Template:Cite news</ref>

Precedents and precursorsEdit

In 1973, the story "Flash Crowd" by Larry Niven described a concept similar to flash mobs.<ref>Nold, Christian (2003). "Legible Mob". p. 23.</ref> 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. Lev Grossman suggests that the story title is a source of the term "flash mob".<ref>Grossman, Lev, (June 13, 2012). "Lord of the Ringworld: In Praise of Larry Niven". Time.</ref>

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People dancing at the Eutopia 15 Flashmob Event while crossing Puerta del Puente in Córdoba, Spain (2015)

Flash mobs began as a form of performance art.<ref name="time" /> While they started as an apolitical act, flash mobs may share superficial similarities to political demonstrations. In the 1960s, groups such as the Yippies used street theatre to expose the public to political issues.<ref>Cosmic Trigger III, Robert Anton Wilson, 1995, New Falcon Publications</ref> Flash mobs can be seen as a specialized form of smart mob,<ref name="fibre">Template:Cite news</ref> a term and concept proposed by author Howard Rheingold in his 2002 book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution.<ref name="cnn2">Template:Cite news</ref>

Use of the termEdit

The first documented use of the term flash mob as it is understood today was in 2003 in a blog entry posted in the aftermath of Wasik's event.<ref name="Wasik2" /><ref name="Wasik"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The term was inspired by the earlier term smart mob.<ref name=wordspy >{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Flash mob was added to the 11th edition of the Concise Oxford English Dictionary on July 8, 2004, where it noted it as an "unusual and pointless act" separating it from other forms of smart mobs such as types of performance, protests, and other gatherings.<ref name="COED"/><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Also recognized noun derivatives are flash mobber and flash mobbing.<ref name="COED"/> 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."<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref> 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;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a collaborative Internet denial of service attack;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> a collaborative supercomputing demonstration;<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and promotional appearances by pop musicians.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The press has also used the term flash mob to refer to a practice in China where groups of shoppers arrange online to meet at a store in order to drive a collective bargain.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

LegalityEdit

The city of Braunschweig (Brunswick), Germany, has stopped flash mobs by strictly enforcing the already existing law of requiring a permit to use any public space for an event.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In the United Kingdom, a number of flash mobs have been stopped over concerns for public health and safety.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The British Transport Police have urged flash mob organizers to "refrain from holding such events at railway stations".<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

CrimeEdit

{{#invoke:Labelled list hatnote|labelledList|Main article|Main articles|Main page|Main pages}} Referred to as flash robs, flash mob robberies, or flash robberies by the media, crimes organized by teenage youth using social media rose to international notoriety beginning in 2011.<ref name="FOXN1" /><ref name="TIME3" /><ref name="WIRED1" /><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> The National Retail Federation does not classify these crimes as "flash mobs" but rather "multiple offender crimes" that utilize "flash mob tactics".<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="NRF1">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> In a report, the NRF noted, "multiple offender crimes tend to involve groups or gangs of juveniles who already know each other, which does not earn them the term 'flash mob'."<ref name="NRF1" /> Mark Leary, a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Duke University, said that most "flash mob thuggery" involves crimes of violence that are otherwise ordinary, but are perpetrated suddenly by large, organized groups of people: "What social media adds is the ability to recruit such a large group of people, that individuals who would not rob a store or riot on their own feel freer to misbehave without being identified."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

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HuffPost raised the question asking if "the media was responsible for stirring things up", and added that in some cases the local authorities did not confirm the use of social media making the "use of the term flash mob questionable".<ref name="HUFFPO1" /> Amanda Walgrove wrote that criminals involved in such activities do not refer to themselves as "flash mobs", but that this use of the term is nonetheless appropriate.<ref name="TFT1" /> Dr. Linda Kiltz drew similar parallels between flash robs and the Occupy Movement stating, "As the use of social media increases, the potential for more flash mobs that are used for political protest and for criminal purposes is likely to increase."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

ReferencesEdit

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External linksEdit

Template:Guerrilla theatre Template:Culture jamming Template:Authority control