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Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
Howard Rheingold
By
Published: Jan 01, 2004
Category:
Non Fiction
Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution
by Howard Rheingold
By 2001, 90% of Tokyo high school students had mobile phones. And do they use them! At Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo, 80% of the 1,500 mostly young people who cross that plaza at each change of the traffic light carry cell phones — and twiddle their thumbs on small buttons as they send rapid-fire text messages to their friends.
“Texting” is also huge in Europe — in 2000, the Finns alone were exchanging a billion mesages a year.
Why hasn’t it conquered America? The old story: competing technologies made it impossible for customers to communicate with one another. That’s changing. Fast.
As is the use of text-enabled cell phones. No longer is this technology just for kids making plans to hook up with their pals. In the Philippines, President Estrada lost his job because of demonstrations by text-enabled activists. Protestors effectively eluded police at the WTO meeting in Seattle by sharing information via their cell phones. The next big question: How will this technology affect politics in the United States?
If anyone knows the answer, it’s Howard Rheingold. He’s the Marshall McLuhan of new technologies — but unlike McLuhan, he’s as much a keen observer as he is a seer. And his mind works faster than a 14 year-old’s thumbs. So Butler rang him up.
BUTLER: You coined the phrase “virtual community” a decade before online communities began to form. Your book about “Smart Mobs” was published late in 2002, and already these groups are in full flower. Are you slowing down or is life moving faster?
RHEINGOLD: Literacy in how to use online media to self-organize is the difference. Look at the rallies against the Iraq war. No global conspiracy could organize a worldwide march like that in a matter of days. It took tens of millions of people who know how to use the Internet to get ten to fifteen million people on the streets of cities around the world. And it takes decentralized organizations using weblogs and e-mail and text-enabled cell phones to connect them.
BUTLER: You describe text-enabled cell phones as instruments that inspire cooperation — and say they’re the next “social revolution.” How so?
RHEINGOLD: The Personal Computer, Internet and telephone are merging into a new hybrid media. The Internet part enables people who share an interest to connect with each other, even if they didn’t know each other previously. Text-enabled telephones enable small and large groups to organize and coordinate collective action in the face-to-face world. The combination allows strangers with shared interests to organize collective action in the physical world.
BUTLER: A one-day anti-war march is one thing. A political campaign is another. Could interest groups linked only by technology influence an election?
RHEINGOLD: They already have in South Korea, thanks to ohmynews.com, an online newspaper with 26,000 “citizen reporters.” When two schoolgirls were crushed by a U.S. Army vehicle, the country’s conservative press downplayed the story. Ohmynews called for demonstrations that helped the Presidential campaign of Roo Moo Hyun. When news reports had Roo losing in exit polls, ohmynews directed constituents to send out millions of emails and text messages, organizing a last-minute get-out-the vote campaign that tipped the election back into Roo’s favor. The key fact: South Korea is the most world’s most wired nation — two-thirds of its households are connected to the Internet, and most have high-speed.
BUTLER: By primary season, all the Democratic candidates suddenly felt the need to have a weblog. Fad or phenomenon?
RHEINGOLD: The foundation of a democratic society is the public sphere — people get accurate information, then debate. You could argue we had a healthier public sphere during the Revolution than now. People argued in the papers, met in taverns. Now because of broadcast media, you have soundbites and overpowering imagery. The blogosphere has brought the public sphere back — on both sides. Debate is returning, and that is significant.
BUTLER: But the debate seems limited to the web.
RHEINGOLD: The blogoshere unleashes an army of fact-checkers. It could be a real force in journalism.
BUTLER: How could it change mass media?
RHEINGOLD: If you come up with a story like Trent Lott — a front page story that starts to fade until bloggers take it up and millions of people watch the bloggers uncover Lott’s past — it may not matter much to Fox, because these people aren’t likely to be Fox watchers. Still, other mass media can lose market share to bloggers. But let’s not overemphasize that. The big lie still works. You still can get people to believe almost anything.
BUTLER: Howard Dean raised impressive money on the Web. Wesley Clark’s supporters used “flash mob” tactics to create simultaneous monthly gatherings in nearly 100 cities. Does technology favor liberal politicians?
RHEINGOLD: In fact, the religious right was the first to jump on computer technology. Ralph Reed used issues to build databases of constituents, then he mobilized his people around candidates who shared their views. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Jerry Falwell sending text messages to 30 million supporters: “Call your Representative tomorrow at 1 PM to encourage a vote on Issue X.”
BUTLER: If Presidential elections are ultimately about rallying behind a leader, how can any traditional politician work with a smart mob?
RHEINGOLD: He has to give up some degree of control. And he has to realize that some of his supporters will embarrass him. Joe Trippi, Dean’s campaign manager, understands this. He will say, “We don’t pull the strings.”
BUTLER: We’ve been seeing lots of press about “flash mobs,” groups that gather for no reason and disperse quickly. Why are they more than a “silly season” story, like shark attacks or UFOs?
RHEINGOLD: What is Meetup but a flash mob composed of people who share more serious interests than staging a short party in a department store?
BUTLER: Here’s what’s different: Flash mobs are more about the young. Can they use their cell phones for more than fun?
RHEINGOLD: We have a dumbed-down population. But a new generation spends less time watching TV, more time using the Internet and text messaging. It’s likely that when they’re 25, they’ll be carrying the equivalent of a super-computer in their pocket. And they’ll want to change things.
BUTLER: Want to make a prediction how?
RHEINGOLD: In these 2004 elections, there will be a much larger awareness of text messaging, then this behavior will spread deeper into our society. What’s most interesting about text messaging: It gives access to connectivity to people who can’t afford computers but do have cell phones. It’s the poor person’s Internet.
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