Are Smart Mobs A Self-Fulfilling Prophecy?
from the fad-or-trend? dept
It's been almost a year since Howard Rheingold unleashed the concept of Smart Mobs on the world, and he's been doing an excellent job promoting it ever since then. His idea was that with the growing ubiquitous nature of internet (or other) connections, such as via your mobile phone, it will become increasingly easy to have unexpected "smart mobs" suddenly show up for certain events. Basically, people can be expected to immediately communicate with others where something special is happening, and suddenly, everyone just starts arriving. So, now that the press is picking up on the various email-based "flash mobs" that have sprung up in the past month, I'm wondering how much of this is a self-fulfilling prophecy. How many of these mobs were created because someone read about Rheingold's concept of Smart Mobs, and decided to make it a reality, rather than having it happen naturally. I also wonder (as do some people in the article) if many of these flash mobs are "sustainable". It mostly sounds like a briefly amusing fad that will quickly die out - and may end up diluting the real power behind the idea of the "smart mob". People may start to assume that smart mobs are really just a bunch of kids with too much time on their hands, randomly showing up places, rather than a true culture-changing phenomenon (which they have the potential to be).Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
Realms of Lysogeny
Perhaps smart mobs will see their counterpart of satellite viruses, in which trouble-seeking bystanders pretend to sympathize with their cause. We could have Professional Troublemakers that spread confusion among smart mobs.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Flash Mobs
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Social Eigenvectors
[ link to this | view in chronology ]