First of all, this entire passage is incredible. How did such a widespread thing like flash mobs, be created as simply as some guy getting bored and deciding to hit send all on an email. But then it leads to what the page above is pointing out. It is so easy to achieve anything now that Internet is such a big thing and its so open to allowing anyone to look in on it. Having so many options through the Internet was one of the big things that I talked about in my last paper. Its crazy to think that maybe the way we keep track of our history, of everything that is going on at this time, will be put on computers instead of books and paintings like it used to be. Instead of taking down a book or walking around an art gallery, people will be scrolling through online magazines and personal blogs to find out what the 2000’s were like, the start of the Internet obsessed age. The word meme is entertaining in this paper because it seems like the meaning it had then is significantly different compared to what it now means. At the moment, a meme is a funny picture that mocks a current/significant event going on in the world.
For Waslik, the internet has opened up all the options he can take. He can connect himself to more ‘mobbers’ because finding that information can be as easy as taping a few buttons. He can broadcast what is going on is his random flash mob moments to show the world and other mobbers what is going on. He can also become a household name because now its so much easier to look up flash mobs and his name will forever be connected to that. Look at the fact that flash mobs are a super common thing now. It went from something that got rid of his boredom and through the internet, turned into something that everyone knows about and anyone can participate in. Or anyone can start if they really want to. If the internet didn’t exist, no emails would have been sent, no one would have found out about the flash mob happening, no news coverage would occur, it would have been a failed experiment.
At first, I thought this was going to be about boredom and some of the research behind it. The joke he made about the guy who stopped research on boredom to move on to something, ashamedly made me laugh really hard. But the more I read, the more I realized that boredom is the start of some incredible things. Yes, it is insane that one simply email to a bunch of random people some how managed to turn into something as huge and crazy as the invention of the modern flash mob. But it is extremely cool to think about. Along with that, it makes you question how it was so easy to get so many people, who probably had prior engagements, to drop everything to get in a huge crowd for absolutely no reason other than that they don’t want to be left out of a moment. Are people honestly so desperate to be included in things that they would join on to such stupid and ill-planned events? Seems like they are, yes. Is it a need to be recognized by society as someone who is ‘important’? There is such a huge obsession with the internet and making sure to keep up to date with everything that is going on, it really isn’t a surprise that people want to be in the middle of it. It wouldn’t be a surprise if people wanted to take the place of all the famous people we love and aspire to be. I think in his passage, Wasik was trying to show how easy it is to get people to do what he wants, because of our desperate need to be recognized and praised by everyone.
