It could be a crowd shuffling like zombies down sidewalks moaning “”braaaaains.”” Or 50 people dressed in blue collared shirts and khakis flooding a Best Buy, offering assistance to bewildered customers. Or even students standing around with suspiciously full bags until someone yells, “”Pillow fight!””
Students on Library Walk pull their pillows out of their bags and begin smacking fellow students. The TritonMob pillow fight was the second flash mob to occur at UCSD.
“”Flash mobs”” involve groups of people uniting suddenly to do something unusual in a public space.
Bill Wasik, a senior editor at Harper’s magazine, organized the first so-called flash mob in 2003. One hundred and fifty people showed up at Macy’s and gathered around a rug insisting they all lived together and needed to decide collectively whether to buy this certain rug, baffling the Macy’s staff. Within months flash mobs had gone worldwide. Sixth College freshman Juan Vazquez, inspired by groups like Improve Everywhere that set up flash mobs, formed a group on Facebook.com called TritonMob, inviting UCSD students to come together and have some fun.
Their first flash mob, a version of the game Red Light, Green Light, occurred on Feb. 7. Participants showed up at Center Hall and waited for Vazquez to come and yell the first “”Green light!”” to start the game. Vazquez was unsure how many people would show up, but almost 50 students came out for the mob, creating a human blockade on Library Walk.
“”People got freaked out as they saw people coming at them and then someone yelling ‘red light’ and stopping, sometimes right in their faces,”” Vazquez said. “”It was pretty cool. People joined in.””
That mob was Warren college senior Jason Ly’s first.
“”Being a part of the experience itself was pretty interesting since I have never been part of one before,”” Ly said. “”I didn’t know what to expect. I didn’t know who or what was part of the flash mob.””
After the success of the first flash mob, Vazquez organized a pillow fight for April 27. Participants stood around with pillows in their backpacks and cried, “”Pillow fight!”” – then upwards of 75 pillows came out swinging.
A.S. Programming organized its own pillow-fight flash mob to occur on May 15, a surprise to TritonMob members.
“”We didn’t mean to step on anyone’s toes,”” Associate Vice President of Programming Di Lam said.
However, the flash mob failed to materialize, with just a few students standing around Sun God lawn with backpacks, looking hopeful that someone would start the fight.
On a campus criticized for its lack of spirit, flash mobs are often considered an invigorating force.
“”I do think these events improve my college experience because I may not remember what grade I got in a class or which professor I had in a few years, but I’ll remember the time when I joined 40 other people in a gigantic pillow fight in the middle of Library Walk,”” Warren college junior Renee Wong said in an e-mail.
According to Vazquez, there will be more flash mobs to come soon.
“”I have a few original ideas that have been sent to me though e-mail,”” Vasquez said. “”There are a few popular ones too, like the Bang flash mob [which was done at University of Florida, spoofing a banned Xbox commercial]. If people keep coming, the flash mobs will keep going on; it’s not about the organization, it’s all about the participation.””
