Texts call for violence

Those readers, who go to Eastern University, PA, probably heard of the dance party we had first semester, called "Flash Dance". It was a night, when we had 5 parties at 5 places. However you did not know the places in advance. You got the information about the first place via text message 30 minutes before it started, and then you got another text message about the second place 5 minutes before the switch, etc. It was a kind of fun and excited, but imagine when this "flash" texting method are done for violent purposes. Why would someone do that? Well, apparently it happened. The New York Times has an article about the so-called "flash mobs", that occurred in Philadelphia, PA on Saturday, March 19, 2010.

A big number of young people filled South Street in Philadelphia and caused several damages and interruption for shop owners, pedestrians, and residents as well. There were pedestrians, who even got injured in the fights.
Eventually some of them got arrested by the police. These "flash mobs" are really getting on the nerves of the city residents, who have been complaining about the unsupervised, sometimes aggressive children on the streets. The solutions that are on the table are more jobs for kids, more summer jobs for kids, more after-school programming, and more parent support. Are the citizens or organizations going to be able to stop these "flash mobs", or is it going to keep going and maybe one day you get a text message too that is saying: "Come to XY street to make some trouble and have some fun!!!"

We have heard that the media have a negative influence on us, because its content are filled with violence and sexuality etc. In the book, The Dynamics of Mass Communication by Joseph R. Dominick, researches' results show that media violence can lead to some sort of aggression, but it definitely depends on the individual's personality and background. In order to prevent young children from getting inappropriate impression of anything, the FCC (Federal Communications Commission) has regulated the different mediums such as television in a way that certain programs are only allowed to be on Tv between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Now in this particular event we are talking about something different. Movies and programs are made to entertain the audience, even if they have violent content, but this is not what is happening here. Here media technology is used in order to create and boost violence. Not to mention that text messages do not go through any regulations, so basically anyone can write whatever he/she wants to anyone. It sounds pretty bad, doesn't it?

Where is our world heading to? Does it show that we have to be prepared that anytime a group of young people just randomly attack us on the streets? I think it is important to see that the violent scenes that we see on Tv are now among us. What would you do if you got a text message like that? Would you call 911 or do you have any other idea?

Klaudia