Midterm Questions

Film-Thursday Class

Dominick Shipley
7/30/2014





The first question I would like to talk about is: What is mob mentality? How does in
invade aspects of our lives? How can entertainment options influence mob mentality for
good/bad? What are some of the best ways to combat mob mentality? There are many good
arguments on why mob mentality is good or bad. As I begin to explain them, I will show you the
good and bad to mob mentality and how it could affect almost everyone.
What is mob mentality? We know that the mob might make you think of pitchforks and
fire. However, the same idea still lasts today; the term mob mentality is used to refer to
unique behavioral characteristics that come from when people are in large groups. Usually it is
used in a negative sense, because as I stated before makes people think of a chaotic group of
people who are aggressive and loud. Social psychologists who study this type of behavior also
call it herd behavior or crowd hysteria. That being said, we know that people have been
studying groups of animals, in order to understand the behaviors of humans. What they have
seen is that people and animals begin to do what the others around them are doing. This
happens usually because someone will join a group that is doing a specific type of behavior. We
can see that this group starts to do things because it seems worthwhile, otherwise they would
not be doing it.
The term herd mentality often is used when something involves more conscious
thought rather than herd behavior. This mentality can be influenced by things such as peer
pressure, the need to feel accepted, conformity, and also the sense to feel like you belong.
Because of these things, it makes people in the same group tend to act in similar ways. There is
many examples of this, it could be when a child is being pressured by his peers to drink or
smoke even when they know either it is wrong, against the law, parents will be disappointed, or
any other thing they may think. We may even see that someone may listen to different music,
or like different things when in this group of people; however, when they go home or are alone,
they like to listen to a different type of music, or do a different activity simply because their
friends might not think it is fun or cool to them.
There are some other factors that come into play when the term mob mentality is
used to refer to something negative. There are two main factors and they include, the greater
anonymity that exists within a group, also the distribution of responsibility for the groups
actions. This can lead to someone believing that they can act a certain way while they are in this
group from which they cannot act when they are alone. An example of this could be that when
a child is vandalizing a building, he or she may think that they have less of a chance to get
caught simply because it would be harder to identify everyone in the group rather than if they
were to be acting alone. Another factor that has been seen in mob mentality is the sense of
confusion or panic that can exist in a large group. An example could possibly be when a large
group of people start running in a direction the people in the group tends to do the same thing,
even if they have no idea why they are running to one side. By doing this the people in the
group either feel a sense of urgency to follow what the crowd is doing or to feel a sense of
panic simply because they dont know why they are running to one side. This could cause a case
of crowd hysteria, and some people may even get trampled as a result.
In this mob mentality there is always a leader, now that being said there is 3 types of
leaders. The first is one who will lead others, this person seems to know or have an idea of what
needs to be done and charges the rest of the mob up in order to get them to follow him or
her. Some examples of this could be someone like Leonardo from the ninja turtles, or Adolf
Hitler during World War II. Both took a stand as a leader and did what the needed to so they
could accomplish their goals, whether they were good or bad. The second kind of leader is one
who leads but will still take the initiative from the led. You could say that is how a democracy
should be run, for the people by the people. However, that is another argument all in its own.
This could be one of the greatest or worst leaders depending on how they rely on the people
they are leading. The third is a circumstantial leader, someone who will lead when they need to
be a leader. This could happen during something traumatic like a car accident or getting lost in
the forest. Everything takes a leader to sway someone one way or another.
Mob mentality in entertainment could be taken for good or for bad in many ways. There
are many different ways that people are influenced by entertainment today. Before there was
little to do with entertainment, first you had plays, then you had the radio, then you had the
newspaper, then the television, and now we have the internet. Now just because we have all
these tools, it didnt stop there. Most people around the world now carry a smart phone, while
these smart phones have helped us in everyday life we can see how they are making things
more custom to us. Google as made a new program called google now, that will recognize you;
from what you search it will know who you are what your interests are, where you work, where
you live, who your friends are, when you talk it captures your voice patterns and even finds
pictures of you on social and public websites. Quietly you are being searched by a computer
constantly throughout the day, everything is personalized and then groups are formed from
around the world even to your smallest interest.
Now, that being said you can take the mob mentality in entertainment for good, and for
the bad. We can see that throughout history entertainment can make people believe many
different things. One of the first things that come to my mind is when War of the Worlds was
first introduced on the radio. Everyone at that time would watch the radio listening to what
was going to be broadcast that day, when war of the worlds started it sounded so real to these
people that they began to panic. Many people started to believe that aliens really were
attacking our planet and that they need to get somewhere safe before the aliens could get
them, which ended up not being true. We can see many other films and other forms of
entertainment that morphed our view of the world at that time. Such as how the movie Birth
of a Nation portrayed African American people as the worst beings to cross the earth, and the
KKK to be our heroes. Today, we have a different outlook on that current idea, and the movie
American History X I believe portrays that in a way we can understand. We can see that
prejudice can be harmful.
While in mob mentality, you may be in a group that does well, or maybe a group that
doesnt do such good things. You may see or build your own entertainment that will be skewed
to your ideas, and you or your group may take things in the idea that you would like to do the
same. One example might be The Fast and the Furious while street racing and running from
cops may look fun on the big screen, reality may say otherwise. How street racing is dangerous,
and could harm a lot of people; running from the cops can be equally as dangerous and have
great consequences. Entertainment feeds of peoples interests, by doing that they can sway
people one way or another depending on how well the creator or author did on their form of
entertainment.
What is the best way to avoid mob mentality in the end; some people see this as being
non-conforming. The first thing we can find is that you need to be creative. We cannot
constantly look to others for ideas on how to run our own lives. We need to learn how to use
our own imagination, and come up with our own way to live. Second, you need to have goals,
only with goals can you be measured, and you can only accomplish goals if you have them.
When we deal in generalities, we shall never succeed. When we deal in specifics, we
shall rarely have a failure. When performance is measured, performance improves. When
performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.
Thomas S Monson
Next, you need to be a master of choice. No one can make decisions for you, although there is
always a consequence both good and bad; you always have a choice. Next, dont be afraid to
say no, sheep do not ask questions when following the herd they just go where they are told. If
you never say no to something you dont believe in or dont think it is right you are no greater
than a sheep. Also, dont apologize for who you are, or where you come from. Everything about
you is what makes you unique; if everyone were like you it wouldnt be cool to be you anymore.
Dont try to find yourself, create yourself instead. While you may have your own personality
and traits, you can still create who you want to be. Lastly, succeed like crazy; leave your
competition in the dust. Again it is too easy to be the same, why not be better than what you
are? Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like
work.-Thomas Edison

Works Cited:
http://brainz.org/what-mob-mentality/
Freud, Sigmund's Massenpsychologie und Ich-Analyse (1921; English translation Group
Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, *1922). Reprinted 1959 Liveright, New York.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-mob-mentality.htm