(Graham Brown mobileYouth) The London Riots - wtf?

Graham Brown"
www.mobileYouth.org
My name is Graham Brown and
I’m an author and co-founder of
mobileYouth. "
"
Since 2001, I’ve been studying
how youth use technology for
both marketing clients and social
projects. My approach is Social
Thinking – understanding how
technology and brands are Social
Tools within their lives. The
#londonriots is a good example of
how these tools can be used
equally destructive and creative
means.

#londonriots

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8/8 London 2011: Unprecedent levels of
rioting and disorder"
Why did this happen?

…but as we’ll ﬁnd
out later, there was
a second story
being told that
unearthed the
positive side of
both social action
and technology

So the ﬁrst story:
what the media focused on

h at ?
1.  unprecedented damage
w
2.  “random” rioting
3.  theft and vandalism not politics

Mobile phones and clothing stores
experienced most damage

1.  economic social backdrop
2.  school vacation
3.  messaging & social media
4.  historic ﬂashpoint

Riots were de-centralized, leaderless and
seemingly spontaneous

#londonriots: what role did social media play?

Social media played a key role in on-the-
ground coverage of the riots

Social media key to forming and shaping
opinions

Riots did not reﬂect a wider sentiment of
dissent in the general public on Twitter

What role did BBM play in the riots?

BBM (Blackberry Messenger) was a key tool
for rioters to organize and communicate
activity in small, decentralized groups

BBM allows distributed, decentralized and
anonymous communication within groups

BBM trumps SMS because unlike SMS
messaging can be organized into discrete
groups which allow social dynamics to emerge

Whereas Facebook is more open, identiﬁable
and traceable to outsiders

BBM preferred technology for youth because
a)  can organize as groups
b)  discrete (vs open) communication platform

A potential PR headache for Blackberry and
maintaining its executive image

#londonriots: a tale of two cities

3 Key Characteristics of Social Action

1. Highly decentralized, bottom-up,
self-organizing, leaderless and
often appearing “random” "

2. Driven by 2 key Social Drivers: "
a) the need to belong and "
b) the need to be signiﬁcant"

3. Facilitated by a combination of
technology and events that
precipitate a feeling of injustice

#londonriots: a tale of two cities"
Part 1: Social drivers as Destroyer

Social Drivers as Destroyer
1) The need to belong

Peer group reinforcement, social currency


It’s “us versus them”

2) The need to be signiﬁcant

Infamy is better than
anonymity


The need to “reclaim” or
regain control of your
Social Space


Status symbols"
Sense of power
from being in
control


Strong populist
statements in reaction to
a sense of powerlessness

Amazon UK sales 24 hrs
after riots highlight how
violence can be the knee-
jerk reaction to
insigniﬁcance (note:
these aren’t rioters but
ordinary citizens)

#londonriots: a tale of two cities"
Part 2: Social drivers as Creator

The creative response to
threat is the social huddle

Social Drivers as Creator


Empathy: not everyone
empathizes with the rioters


Social groups easily deﬁned
by a common enemy


Little trust in the ability of centralized
authority to either protect or clean up
community. Londoners turn to Social
Media to do it themselves


Communities respond in
a highly motivated and
decentralized manner


Twitter key tool to
facilitate self-
organizing activity

Communities self-
organize without
centralized input



Neighbours you’ve never spoken to before