FLASH MOBS! With the all caps and exclamation-pointed formatting they demand, flash mobs seem like something spawned in the mind of Kanye West, who, for those of you who don’t know, LIKES TO BLOG LIKE THIS. In reality, flash mobs are school-sanctioned, student-scheduled bouts of insanity, probably designed by some undergraduate genius as a way to go crazy without actual chaos ensuing. You’ve probably seen at least one of these generally harmless and seemingly ridiculous events on your campus or at a nearby school. At Penn, we’ve had a few, including a silent rave (wear your iPod) in the school’s most notoriously silent library and a massive, university-wide pillow fight.
Flash mobs have pretty non-academic roots in collective acts of crazy like the underwear subway thingy in NYC. At colleges, these freak-outs are organized on Facebook (huge surprise) or by email. Now they’re happening all over the place:
Syracuse
These mobs are sometimes promotional tools and occasionally even protests, but the overwhelming majority of them are just another excuse on a never-ending list of reasons to party. (see also: It’s my birthday! It’s sunny! It’s… Wednesday!)
Her Campus called up University of Mississippi sophomore Taylor McGraw, proud participant in and survivor of a recent rave at Ole Miss, to find out just what’s up with flash mobs.
HC: Hey Taylor, so pretend I’m this alien and I just crash-landed on Earth, and I have no idea what a flash mob is. Explain.
TM: We use the term “flash rave,” actually. It’s the whole school just going nuts, all at once.
What was the latest flash rave at U of Mississippi like?
We had really loud rave music blaring in our library. It shut the library down for about ten, fifteen minutes. So we stormed the library – I don’t know how many people, I think it was, like, 3,000. It was just insanity.
Who put it all together?
It was organized by a group of students. The guy in charge stood up on the balcony in a penguin costume and starting yelling out rally cries and stuff. It was almost like we were going into war. It was fun.
Sounds like the sort of thing that would piss off the academic powers-that-be.
The administration was on board. They didn’t really care; we’d told them beforehand so they were prepared.
JMU students throwing a rave at the East Campus Library in 2009
Do you think it’s just that all the students need to blow off steam because of studying-induced-stress?
Pretty much. Ours was during exam time and everyone was really stressed out, just studying non-stop. The flash rave was us taking a little break from that and going wild and crazy, being like a kid again.
This is supposed to be a nationwide phenomenon. Truth?
I saw some YouTube videos of Virginia Tech, they had a really, really big one. It looked like they were all in the school’s library.
You get this cool clash of location and action, then. Are flash mobs always in academic settings?
[That’s] my impression. From my understanding… it’s all done in an academic setting, on a campus. You try to get as much participation as possible. It’s not limited to the Greek community or anything like that. Whoever wants to come dance their brains out can.
Illinois State University’s flash mob incorporated the season’s hottest outerwear: the Snuggie
Were all your friends into it?
Actually, no. I was talking to friends beforehand and they thought it was stupid. But I think afterwards people were jealous of the people that went and wished they’d gone. I think it unifies the student body, even if it’s just for a few minutes on one night. You get to be part of something bigger than yourself.
Is it similar to any other event in that way? It sounds like what a lot of people experienced on election night in 2008.
I’d say the closest thing would be a sporting event like a football or basketball game, when you’re sitting in the student section. Everyone is just cheering and yelling together. All that matters is your common love of your school and team.
And for flash raves, dancing. That too.
Sources: Taylor McGraw, University of Mississippi sophomore http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gkxkH4T_oXY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBH4rOU5IQA http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdCCTsSH3Mw http://www.alligator.org/news/campus/article_3ddd5cda-c431-11de-b894-001… http://universe.byu.edu/node/6291 http://www.dailyorange.com/2.8656/in-a-flash-students-bring-flash-mobs-t…