Cutting social media no answer to flash mobs[ Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:32:57 EDT ]In the past, people seemed to require a massive "cue" to form a mob. The New York blackouts of the summer of 1977 resulted in citywide looting, not just because alarm systems were down, but because a whole lot of hot, angry, frustrated people had an excuse to act en masse. Likewise, the verdict on the Rodney King trial served as a spark, synchronizing simultaneous explosions of mob behavior in a dozen North American cities.