The Power of Smart Mobs

When looking back at international history, we will often see incidents of citizens overthrowing their dictating and authoritarian government. And still today we see this happening where citizens band together to stir up some powerful political action. However, the difference between then and now is the means of instigating the political action.

In Howard Rheingold's article, "Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution", he saw a future of people using mobile technology to cause political uproar and make a difference in the lives of many. This future he anticipated started to unfold before his eyes in 2000 and this future is now the society we live in today, almost thirteen years later. Rheingold defines smart mobs as people "who are able to act in concert even if they don't know each other, cooperate in ways never before possible because they carry devices that possess both communication and computing capabilities" (xi). Smart mobs are ad hoc organizations, meaning they meet on the fly. They are a decentralized organizational structure that is self-regulated and lack a hierarchy. These characteristics of smart mobs are what make them so powerful -- no one can see them coming.

One prime example of a smart mob was the Kony 2012 campaign promoted by the Invisible Children group. This group sought to bring awareness to the activities of Joseph Kony, the leader of the Lord's Resistance Army in Central Africa. Joseph Kony went around Central African towns kidnapping children to join his children army. Any child who tried to escape would be killed and the children in his army forcefully participated in the kidnapping and killing of others. To promote this awareness, the group created this video:

The video was uploaded to YouTube and the Invisible Children homepage with the intention to not only promote awareness of the Central African atrocity, but to inform the world of a global plan. Invisible Children planned a day in 2012 where people would attack the night posting KONY2012 flyers and stickers all over the world and they informed the world of this plan via this video.

This was the smart mob; those who participated in the KONY2012 campaign that one midnight in 2012. They were an ad hoc organization who were informed of the event with the use of the Internet. They could also document the event using their mobile technology to either record or take pictures. This ad hoc organizational structure sought to make a difference in the world by promoting awareness all around the world and make a difference in the international political arena.