During this week’s class, we read two segments from Howard Rheingold’s book Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Rheingold tells us that he first noticed the use of smart mobs in Japan when Japanese teens would text each other to meet. Smart mobs primarily use handheld devices, like phones instead of computers to send their messages. This is because the cost of a phone is a lot less than that of a computer. This makes it accessible to more people. An example of this would be the smart mob that happened in the Philippines in 2001. Large groups of people were assembled via text message to protest President Joseph Estrada. It was a peaceful protest and ended up being quite successful. And without cell phones, this smart mob wouldn’t have even existed because the Philippines are a poor country. But that is not the only way that smart mobs can work. They also can be used to creep on your favorite celebrities or find a love interest.
Yet smart mobs can be good. Often people are afraid of what can happen when smart mobs “go bad”. Like the London riots that got out of control and that can scare people. But most smart mobs are peaceful and have a good message. Like the hacker group Anonymous in operation BART fought for the people with their smart mob. After BART authorities disabled the cell phone signals, Anonymous thought it was unfair and decided to take action. They created a Youtube video and called the people of BART and surrounding areas to show up at the subway station to protest. Another example of a peaceful but meaningful smart mob would be Operation: Drop Dead done by some students of the University of Maryland. At a set time on October 17th a few students suddenly fell to the floor unmoving while a couple other students placed signs next to them. The objective of the mob was to give North Koreans a voice.
Smart mobs have also helped create flash mobs, which are a fun, entertaining sudden group of people who assemble in one place. Sometimes it’s just for fun, like the group Improv Everywhere. They are a group that gets people together to do funny improv flash mobs in big cities like New York City. For example, they have done multiple mp3 flash mobs. This is a group of people download an mp3 file and listen to it at the instructed time and general area. From there a voice directs them through funny activities until they all meet in the end. This is only one example of how a flash mob can be a fun and peaceful.
Sydney, I like your positive insight regarding Smart Mobs. Much of what Rheingold explained in his work discussed the political motivation and the negative effects that they had. Your mentioning of flash mobs also brings up a good point. There is a commercial for AT&T that shows the capability of Smart Mobs with their cellphones or more specifically exaggerating the speed of their network.
ReplyDeleteI agree and like the fact that you pointed out how Smart Mobs can be both positive and negative. In the last few years alone, we have seen both types with the negative Smart Mob riots being the most recent. Since we have only discussed serious Smart Mobs in class, I especially appreciate that you brought up a Smart Mob that was formed out of pure fun. I hope one day that I myself will be able to join in a Smart Mob.
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