The Idea of Mob Mentality

This generation, where technological advances continue on evolving, has proven that the
world had experienced a big shift from having traditional modes of living to a digital one. Social
media has been one of the leading digital advances that is making the world live a life that is
much easier, more attractive, yet addictive which definitely causes negative impacts on the
netizens. But what is it in social that makes people this addicted to the point that they become
uncontrollable and hyperactive?

There are several explanations I found which correlate to the social media addiction,
nonetheless, the idea of Mob Mentality is, which I think, the culprit to this trend. According to
Polito (2017), Mob mentality or also called as herd mentality, describes how humans adopt
behaviors, buy merchandise, and follow trends based on their circle of influence. It explains how
one’s point of view can be easily altered by those around them.

It is normal that humans are afraid of being left alone, that is why we tend to follow
whatever everyone is doing or where everybody is going and that explains why we can’t get our
hands off our phone; we want to know what is happening and trending on our outside world. The
thought of being left out leaves a feeling of unbelonging and inexistence which nobody wants to
undergo, therefore our minds tend to unconsciously seek for things that will prevent us from
feeling so.

And I think that the idea of Mob mentality should be considered an intellectual revolution
because, it makes people live in a belief that one should follow where many is going and I
strongly believe that the social media platforms are becoming the vent of this mentality.