Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution

Culture

from the changing-times dept

Joe Schmoe writes “…This is the precise opposite of a 1962-style “American Graffiti” world. Then you had to go to a place — the strip, the drive-in — to find out what was going on. Now, you find out what’s going on by cell phone, and go to the place where it’s happening…” A very interesting article about how mobile phones and other wireless devices are helping to create such “smart mobs” on the go. Wherever something interesting is happening, others find out quickly, and go there. It works for social events as well as political gatherings. Suddenly, the ability to bring together large groups of people incredibly quickly, and with little organizational effort brings a lot of power to these “smart mobs”. The whole “swarming” effect works in both small groups and large – as whole groups of friends coordinate small things by text messaging.