Who was it who said the mob has many heads but no brains? (Actually that is a rhetorical question – it was someone called Antoine de Rivarol – I checked on google). The reason I bring it up here is the recent #chetanblocks mob-lynch on twitter.
What is it about the internet / social networking / blogging sphere that makes normal (heh!), nice people turn into witch-hunters? In the real world, it works like this – a group of people are walking together in silence in a crowded street, one of them bumps into someone, a stranger and a small frisson of excitement goes through the crowd. And suddenly one of them shouts, maaro usko – and the next thing you know, there is a danga, a fracas. And the stranger is usually an ‘other’ – an outsider (another locality, another community, another town…)
Something like this happens in the virtual world too – a blogger copies from another (popular) blog, someone else says a small white lie on her blog to feel important – or in this case, one twit (Chetan Bhagat) has an altercation with another twit (was it Saad?), blocks him and suddenly, all the twits in the world are pouncing on the former – the cyber-equivalent of maaro usko. What is worse is the nasty, spiteful, personal tone of these messages – why?
If one or more of those involved in the chetan-bashing event had a problem with him as a person / author, or his books or his tweets, then surely there is a better way of expressing it? Why wait for the mob to initiate something of this nature and join in the chorus? And the morning after, most of the rioters(!) are slightly embarrassed – what did happen last night?
And many of these people, I know – through twitter, facebook, their blogs, even in person – and I do not see them as silly stealth-bombers. So what happens to these people in such a situation – is it finally about the nature of the internet? It allows people to say what they want, how they want – without any thought of accountability or norms of polite social discourse?
CB got more coverage due to the MOB.. I predict a riot !!
That is what is truly known as ‘Mob Mentality’ or do we call it ‘Freedom of expression/speech’?
Is the analogy really appropriate?
An incident occurred between some tweeple resulting in one of them blocking one or more others. What followed was a spate of tweets with the hashtag #chetanblocks. Even you would have to admit that some of them were extremely witty; one got the sense that people were talking about much in the same manner as a bad movie, a bad performance in the sporting arena and so on.
Only Chetan Bhagat would be able to answer how many people used the @ tag thus forcing themselves on his timeline. But relative to the tweets with the hashtag referred to above, I feel it would be a miniscule percentage thus giving Chetan Bhagat a choice of not reading (or alternativey, reading at leisure) what other people were talking about..
Even Chetan Bhagat has seen the funny side of it – see his tweets of today “wife screamed at me this morning for no reason. felt like blocking her.” & “Mocks me, but v funny..the best of the saga.. http://bit.ly/6YWLnt (by @krishashok, derived fm prev xbox spoof). Captions on. ” The ability to laugh at oneself dents others’ fun in laughing at you. Maybe, he also realises that, for good or bad, this is a small price to pay for success – it is unlikely that you will see a #screwvvyes topic unless I attain some form of fame (which in itself is unlikely) or notoriety.
I feel that terming what went on yesterday as “mob mentality” is akin to making a mountain out of a molehill.
I was surprised to see the whole saga of chetanblocks when I logged into twitter late evening. And just like everyone else I was curious too. On reading through a number of tweets, there was actually absolutely nothing that actually showed why it was called chetan blocks. It was only then that the blogpost came up detailing the events.
So more importantly, there was nothing offensive/demeaning in most of the tweets. I think it was more a curiosity to see something indian in the trending tweets!
I think it’s human nature that permits succumbing to mob behaviour, as you have rightly made the case for it, rather than the internet which is just another vehicle for facilitating groups and mobs.
When we read about acts of mob violence, we sit back in the comfort of our living rooms and say “that could never be me”. But given the right triggers, we can succumb. This is what happened with your online acquaintances.
To conclude, I leave you with a reference to William Golding’s Lord of the Flies.
Ya I agree with you… I was alerted about this while this was breaking out on Twitter… On following it intently for sometime, I found that… it was .. as you rightly put it.. herd mentality taking shape online… And people were responding without having a clue to what the whole thing was all about… Good point in your post..