The discussion on smart mobs on Tuesday was quite interesting to me. Technology has a great impact on our society these days. There is so much information available to us through the access of the Internet. It is amazing to me that all that information is accessible through cell phones now. We can have to world at our fingertips 24/7. Through a variety of outlets like society networks, blogs, chats, instant messaging, etc, large groups of people can make an impact. This is a powerful tool.
However, I am having a hard time believing that smart mobs are self-formed. I gathered in class that several people were of the same mind set. An idea has to have an origin. I am not convinced that a smart mob is self-formed. Once the "mob" gets underway, then it can be self-sustaining, but the idea, I feel, had to have an origin.
By the way, I am interested to get some feedback regarding thoughts on Facebook. What value do you put on Facebook? Is it something that you can't live without or just something to do for fun?
Rhetorical Analysis
13 years ago
Posts
4 comments:
I basically posted this same idea on my blog. I agree that there has to be some origin or idea that starts the group. It may not be a central leader but there has to be some initial concept that starts a group. And facebook is capable of starting a debate like the wikipedia one we watched in class. There are going to be pros and cons to every form of social networking, and some people will place a lot more value on facebook than others.
I see where yall are coming from. But I see it as the idea that with the development of facebook, twitter, and all the other crap, that as there is a growing opinion in a particular population they will begin to organize themselves, like facebook and twitter. When you think about it, it is an individual narcissism competition. They give people the ability to post everything about themselves thinking everybody who has ever met them wants to know everything about them and everything they are doing. Not to leave out the fact of people counting friends. But since this has come about and so many people do nothing but tell more about themselves and their opinion than even their own mother would want to hear, it would reason that people of similar interests would group together, and at some point someone will take the lead and start a group for their interest.
It is kinda funny, if you think about it. Some people with the compulsion to friend everyone they meet, and tell everyone everything about their life, in order to feel more liked by the people they know, makes the people that know them, delete them.
I agree with you that smart mobs have a leader. The reason smart mobs seem to be self-formed is that the leader isn't visible, and these leaders are not leaders in the traditional sense. I think a better word would be "instigators", as they initiate the smart mob, after which it becomes self-sustaining. But, it is definitely harder to pinpoint a single leader of a smart mob than it is to determine the leader of a more traditional mob.
I agree with you that it is hard to say that there is no leader and that smart mobs are self-formed. I think once there is an idea, then it can perpetuate but it definitely has to start from somewhere, and doesn't just occur out of thin air.
As for your question about facebook, I wish I could say that I don't use it that much, but that would be untrue. Sometimes I find myself typing in the address when I'm actually trying to go to another website--it's just a habit to go to facebook when I get on the computer. More and more lately I haven't been looking at it as much. I'm not sure why this is, maybe because I'm busier than usual, but also I think it's because I find myself being bored of it and not really wanting to look at everything. I could live without it I'm sure, but as of right now I don't really want to!
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