When people look back at the Noughties, they will certainly be remembered as a significant decade. The first few years of the 21st Century have provided their fair share of noteworthy events but history is bound to look back at the stupid things we did too. Let’s face it, lots of important things happened in the 80s but most people remember shoulderpads, permed hair and the success of Kajagoogoo before the Chernobyl disaster or the Falklands War. At the top of the list for ‘Stupid things we did in the Noughties’ has to be the Flashmob.

Since 2003 groups of people have been converging on a public space, performing a predetermined act and then dispersing again. From mass pillowfights to silent discos, these events have captured the imaginations of a lot of people. They’re certainly fun to take part in and, hey, people like to be in on the next big thing don’t they?

The irony here is that the Flashmob was designed by Bill Wasik at Harper’s Magazine as “a social experiment designed to poke fun at hipsters and to highlight the cultural atmosphere of conformity and of wanting to be an insider or part of ‘the next big thing’.” (Wikipedia). Well Bill, that backfired didn’t it?

Here in the UK we seem to be going through a spate of Flashmobs at the moment. Mobile phone network T-Mobile has been running a series of Flashmob-themed ads shot in a railway station and imitators have been jumping on the bandwagon, forcing police to waste their time overseeing these events when they could be catching criminals. Sometimes these railway station events attract hundreds of people causing huge inconvenience to people who actually want to catch a train. Other times they attract more police than Flashmobbers – a huge waste of resources.

So, what if Flashmobbers used their energies more usefully? I can see two ways this could be done:

1. Demonstrations

Political demonstrations tend to attract a lot fewer people than they could. A lot more people opposed the war in Iraq than bothered to take part in demonstrations about it. Whether people just don’t have time or whether they’re put off by the Socialist image of most demos, maybe they’d be more inclined to participate if it was more fun?

If two thousand people turned up in Trafalgar Square, laid on the ground and played dead for five minutes before getting up and dispersing they’d make more of a bold statement than just another SWP/Respect-dominated rally with megaphones and angry students. It would probably be reported more widely too. This idea has been in use for a few years in Belarus.

2. Positive social impact

Flashmobs tend to be narcissistic affairs but what if all that human energy was put to positive use. You might not have a lot of spare time to improve your local environment, but if lots of people came together they could very quickly achieve a major effect with little individual effort. Charities have used Flashmobbing as a promotional tool but how about using it as a way of actually getting things done?

I asked my followers on Twitter for their ideas of the kinds of things that could be achieved. George Veletsianos, a Lecturer of Digital Technologies, Communication & Education at Manchester University, pointed me in the direction of Carrotmobs in the Netherlands who promote consumer ethics. Musingsonamac suggested that Flashmobs could “clean graffiti, pick litter (less lasting) deliver soup to homeless – frankly all manner of social good!”. Gary Williams meanwhile said “Imagine if (Flashmobbers) had all given their (train) fare to charity instead, or visited an unloved patch of land and planted some wild flower seeds”.

It’s a beautiful thought. It’s just a shame that positive citizenship isn’t as ‘cool’ as dancing around promoting a mobile phone network.

[Image credit: Giezzy]