Flash Mob Commuter Dance Party!
To pass the time during long commutes on the New York City subway, I would listen to lots of ska and punk and aggressively upbeat music. Sometimes I daydreamed that the rest of the car started dancing and skanking frantically to the sounds pouring into my own ears – Mighty Mighty Boss Tones and Suicide Machines and Voodoo Glow Skulls infusing the would be tired and beaten down working stiff set into a gloriously chaotic morning dance party of epically bizarre proportions. Sometimes I could even envision the band itself beating out the tunes at the other end of the subway car. Good times.
Now, in the era of iPods (I used a crappy cassette player with specially crafted mix tapes back in the day) and “flash mobs,” this fantasy has become something like reality.
And leave it to Londoners to get their flash mob dance on with the best of them.
More than 4,000 clubbers danced through the rush hour at Victoria station in Britain’s biggest flash mob stunt.
Revellers responded to e-bulletins urging them to “dance like you’ve never danced before” at 6.53pm.
There were knowing looks and giggles among the casually dressed crowd that gathered from 6.30pm, wearing earphones.A deafening 10-second countdown startled station staff and commuters before the concourse erupted in whoops and cheers. MP3 players and iPods emerged and the crowd danced wildly to their soundtracks in silence – for two hours.
The line between online communities and the “real world” is beginning to blur, and I think that’s a good thing. Where taking part in computer-oriented activities used to be thought of as the domain of loners and outcasts, today it’s a healthy part of an active and modern lifestyle for most.
The ability to connect online and then crossover to real life interactions is and will be a compelling reason for people to take part in online communities, particularly for the young. Music and cultural related activities (including flash mob dance parties) are a given now, but political gatherings based upon online communities are a growing phenomenon as well. Sports and parenting and nature and books are other areas of near certain applicability.
In the meantime, dance party on!
