Flash Mobs

You’re walking through New York’s Union Square when thousands of people suddenly begin plummeting each other with pillows. This yearly tradition is part of a global fad known as flash mobs. Groups gather through social networking at a particular location. They may stop and remain still for one minute, offer synchronized applause or create some other harmless disturbance.

The man who started this phenomenon was Bill Wasik. He’s written a book called And Then There’s This.

Wasik suggests that our new internet world is moving at such a rapid pace we are wasting our lives on the trivial. We must “feed the beast” with our texting, blogging, twittering and emailing. Never able to pause without falling behind, we begin to “seize upon these tiny little things and try to elevate them into sensations but of course they can't bear up under the weight of it.. the challenge is to try to find ways to partially unplug ourselves. To carve out spaces in our lives away from information. Away from the sort of constant buzzing of the hive mind.”

Read more in a Salon interview with Wasik.

Stephen Goforth