How Online Mobs Act Like Flocks Of Birds

An interesting perspective that humans on social media follow the same pattern as a murmuration — a group of starlings that fly together in a synchronized formation. In general I try to skew towards the positive on this blog since there is such a dearth of disheartening information out there. But this article, while it is the opposite of that, is still interesting to consider how our paths in this world may be guided by others more than we realize.

A growing body of research suggests that human behavior on social media — coordinated activism, information cascades, harassment mobs — bears striking similarity to this kind of so-called “emergent behavior” in nature: occasions when organisms like birds or fish or ants act as a cohesive unit, without hierarchical direction from a designated leader.

By Renée DiResta in Noema Magazine