Written by: Bri Thomas

As the creation of “events” on social networking sites such as Facebook become  popular, the idea and formation of public flash mobbing in crowded, busy areas has grown.

Flash mobs have been seen before on TV shows, movies, commercials, and so on, but is social networking the reason for their sudden popularity outside of the television?

“ I think Facebook made flash mobs more common because everyone gets the invite,” junior Marney Smeall said.

Flash mobs in the Omaha metro have been seen quite a few times this summer. An attempted pillow fight mob was scheduled to take place in Memorial Park, but threats from park officials caused the group’s plan to be postponed. A dance mob took place in Papillion’s Shadow Lake in late July for the celebration of “National Dance Day”, as well as a splash mob in the Old Market in early August.

“I think its a very good thing and you can meet up with people you haven’t seen in a long time or talked to in a while,” junior Haley Clatterbuck said.

The ideas of flash mobs vary greatly. Some groups bust a move, some have water gun fights, some simply stand in place, and like we’ve experienced at Bellevue West, some start to sing “Happy Birthday”.

The commons became more compact than usual, students from culinary classes rolled out a huge cake, Rohlfs walked up, and the students began to sing.

“I was deeply touched, it took me a long time to figure out what was going on; it was a great surprise and it made turning 50 a lot easier,” Rohlfs said on last year’s biggest flash mob.

We’ve actually seen a few attempts at flash mobbing at Bellevue West; the word spread through mass texts. But the question is, will we see them again this year?

“I think it would be really fun and surprising. School is repetitious and something like that would be random and fun,” freshman Katie Allen, who has yet to participate in a flash mob at Bellevue West, said.

Clatterbuck agreed with Allen.

“I think they’re freaking awesome,” Clatterbuck said, who was a part of last year’s flash mob at West.

Student opinions on flash mobbing during the school day seem to be more on the optimistic side compared to the deans.

“[They’re] a disruption, they cause kids to be late; I think they’re hilarious on TV and commercials but not practical to what we do in school,” Dr. Pokorski said.