Submited By: T. Widmaier
Recently, our city has come under attack by teens who perfectly display the negative side of group behavior. "Flash mobs" are popping up all over Philly. Groups of teens find anonymity in large numbers, and are encouraged by each others approval. Individually, the members of these groups are relatively harmless. When they get together, however, they are motivated by the idea of fitting in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4WOYMWp29g&feature=player_detailpage
The above link is a news broadcast showing hundreds of teens flooding the street with no purpose other then to cause chaos. In this case the authority figure is not a single person; The authority is the majority. I believe the more people you have on your side the more people will be willing to join in on your "cause". Perhaps some are even afraid to not take part. The news story mentions the use use of social media to communicate information. People may feel that they need to go along with their group of friends in order to remain in that group. The fact that their are hundreds of young adults taking part in these flash mobs may also indicate the desire to rebel against city police and officials.
No real reason has ever been given for the attacks. It is easy to assume that the participating teens are just bad people, but sociology teaches us that their must be enviormental causes or else the numbers wouldn't be so large. The news click mentions the cities apparent desire to sweep the issue under the rug as it is bad for tourism, but this time last year i recall us dealing with the same issue. While the initial reaction will obviously be to punish those who are doing harm, perhaps we should be spending more time trying to figure out why its happening.
Hey T.Widmaier. I thought you pick a interesting topic. I think the flash mob has taking over the street of Philadelphia. They are just a bunch of young teens going around hurting people for no reason. This out of control behavior is still going on as of today because the authority didn't really take care of the problem. Leaving the group of teens to feel like they have all the power in their hands. If the police officer start locking some of the out of control teens up,this will no longer be a issue. Authorites are just being lazy.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with T. Widmaier. Teens today are motivated by the idea of fitting in. But, on so many levels, they don't understand what they are trying to fit into. They have no idea who's the ring leader or what the ring leader is representing. Old school parents are an asset in families, because they speak truth. My grandmother always taught me to create my own footprints.
ReplyDeleteI viewed the attached video. But when I read the comments associated with the video, I was astounded. It amazes me to this day how race is made an issue. These are TEENS!! It doesn't matter if they're black, white, pink, or purple! If you care about your children, you should care about other children, because whether we like it or not, these "other children" are our children's peers, and our children will most likely have to come in contact with them at one point in their lives, making this an issue for EVERYONE!!
I didn't really agree with Robyn, though. I don't believe we can blame one entity for this issue. Oftentimes, with major issues, there are several underlying issues. We saw the clip. What's the police to do?? Lock up every teen?? And say that was probable and we did do that. It might teach an important lesson, but it won't have lasting effects.
An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. We need to "catch" these teens before they go off the deep end, by parents becoming more interested in their children's daily activities, parents and government collectively investing in education (reviewing our educational system, and adding and removing subjects to make subjects/classes more efficient so they apply to the real world, also investing monetarily and not sparing costs). In addition, we must never forget that an idle mind is the devil's playground. Where is the recreation?? Playgrounds, basketball courts, baseball diamonds, soccer and football fields in inner city neighborhods are not maintained. Even worse, when they are FINALLY renovated, they close at a certain time!! So, the same people we build these recreation centers for, are the same people we are protecting this property from. Bottom line: We don't have enough faith in our children and we don't put enough energy into our children, so they find ways to get our attention.
I think it's also important that we consider the economy. Parents don't have as much money to invest in their children as they used to and parenting and financial classes are not offered at the local YMCA (sorry). Even the city doesn't have the means to invest in children like they used to. So, children find other ways to entertain themselves, whether it's sex, drugs, or a flash mob.
Hello T. Widmaier. You bring up very intresting points. I first would like to point out the fact that teenagers are the ones primarily partaking in these " Flash Mob" episodes. I believe teens are more sesceptible to conformity because they are trying to be in the In-groups. I also believe these "Flash Mobs" may have had alot to do with certin subcultures and what they considered their norms. As mentioned in the reading "Code of the streets" If they were"street people" by commiting such hanus acts they would recieve positive sanctions for their actions,and the role that they played in it. As we learned in some of the "Human Behavior Experiments" Under certin circumstances people conform even if the don't believe in the cause. They also partake in things according to the authority that is in charge. Who is to say this wasn't led by a person of authority in a subculture?
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