Flash Mob decends on Davis Library

A fascinating spectacle that occurred during Finals' Week at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has just come across the Clarion Content's radar. In what is apparently now a one year-old tradition, a flash mob descended on the university's main library, Davis library, during finals week. Their purpose to blow-off stress in a ritual that would have fired Emile Durkheim's imagination. Originally an underground thing, this year it had a public Facebook page. Attendance was estimated at over 3,000 by the Raleigh News and Observer's December 16th print edition. The video below can attest to that number.

The Clarion Content is fascinated by flash mobbing. It has powerful political applications as was first demonstrated at the World Trade Organization's November 1999 meetings in Seattle. Those were the nascent days of cell phone technology. The handheld computer that is the iPhone was a dream of science fiction. Chatrooms were the 90's caveman equivalent of Facebook. The technology available has exponentially multiplied the scale of flash mobbing's potential.

University of North Carolina officials displayed a wide range of reactions as reported by the News and Observer.

UNC Assistant Vice-Chancellor for Student Affairs Winston Crisp said, "You don't know how many people are coming. If they are going to gather like that, how do you stop it?"

Randy Young a spokesman for the UNC campus police said, "We try to weigh in on whether it would be prudent to stop it or whether it would just be better to let it run its course."

Billy Mitchell, the campus fire marshal, said he had not received any complaints and was not concerned.

Check out the video. Remember it is filmed in the lobby of a massive research library that houses nearly than 5.8 million books. Student organizers brought in speakers and positioned them around the second floor railings.


This photo shows the lobby empty.



This video shows the flash mob scene December 14th, 2009.