Flash Mobs

I heard about flash mobs a few years ago, but I never did any research on them until now.  What I found was incredible.

Obviously, flash mobs are a product of advanced communication tools (txt, email, FB) that allow mass-messages to be sent in seconds.  It is hard to imagine a flash mob being organized by telegraph or over the phone.  I picture someone sitting down with a rotary phone and a list of a hundred people -- not gonna happen.  But now someone can create a Facebook group and invite the people they want in on the prank, or type up a txt message and send it to dozens of contacts.

I suppose I should define "flash mob."  It is a mob that comes seemingly out of nowhere, in a public place, and does something (usually) harmless and completely random.  The bystanders usually catch a good show, especially when the mob performs a dance, which seems to be the most popular type of flash mob.  Flash mobs can also pull off hilarious pranks, like this one that I found on Youtube:

Flash mobs are a great example of how the digital world can help us interact with the analog world.  People have been texting and emailing each other to make plans for years, and flash mobs are an extreme version of that act.

Reading up on these things makes me hope that some day soon I get a text message that invites me to be a part of one.