Last week there was a flashmobbing thing at Liverpool St Station which I ran into on my way home - basically 100 people or so dancing round with their iPods in.
Ironically that day we had been discussing whether to use flashmobbing in a promotion for a client.
Flashmobbing is defined by wikipedia as:
a group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, do something unusual for a brief period of time, and then quickly disperse. They are usually organized with the help of the Internet or other digital communications networks
Now on the one hand it's quite cool to see a hundred people in the middle of a busy station all dancing around like loons, and also to see them united by a common purpose.
But the thing is, why do they do it? If it is part of a promotion then they will be paid in some way. But what about the flashmobs that are not promotions - people just do it for the hell of it.
Seems that people just like to get together in groups. It is really interesting that most flashmobs are coordinated online. but despite all the community sites and the emotional interaction that happens online now, there is no substitute for meeting up with people who you have something in common with.
It's like a physical manifestation of the online networks, but they almost have the feel of protest about them. Although I am not sure what they are protesting about. A protest without the protest?
Cheers
Steve
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