Flashmobbing didn't go away

Remember Flashmobbing, the media-sticky craze of 2003 where large groups of people descended on a public location and acted out a, usually surreal, task?

Most famously in the UK it saw 500 ‘in-the-know’ people suddenly visit a London sofa store to test out furniture.

Well thanks to the growth of social networking channels, the craze has become something of an enduring hobby for thousands of UK students.

They’ve found they can organise flashmob events quickly and efficiently.

As a result, local people in university towns have witnessed a plethora of apparently spontaneous madness.

In June, Cambridge shoppers looked on while a large group dressed in yellow performed a conga.

Loughborough residents were recently bemused when over one hundred students appeared at the foot of a town centre statue and performed a worship ritual.

And, our favourite, the krazy kids of York University confused their fellow diners in the refectory with this random act of Ooga Booga chanting.

Numerous flashmob groups have now appeared across student networks and even one or two official societies at students’ unions.

It’s easy to see the appeal of flashmobbing. With its roots in situationism and surrealism, it taps into a prevalent student mindset. Students may have changed since the days of sit-ins and Monty Python, but they still love being mischievous and confronting conformism in society.

It goes to show: students can and will mobilise themselves for a cause that engages their interest.

Viva la flashmob!