I find
spontaneous group behaviour fascinating. We do a lot of things because
we are told to - by our parents, by teachers, by police or by the
law. Some things, though, we do because we choose to do them, and
sometimes lots of us decide we want to do the same things at the same
time.
Someone
must start a Mexican wave off, but it is not compulsory to join in;
people just do it. The only pressure I have ever seen on people to
take part is when the wave reaches the Pavilion in a cricket match
and everyone looks to see if the stuffy old members will join in,
earning boos or cheers depending on their response.
No-one
told motorists to let people in who were joining the motorway, but
it became standard courteous behaviour to move over. No-one tells
drivers to rubberneck when there’s a crash on the other side
of the motorway, but there are always jams caused by curious people
slowing down to see what happened.
No-one
instructed the populace that they must have video recorders or mobile
telephones,
but within a few years they have become part of the nation’s
way of life, changing social behaviour. Having to stay in to watch
a favourite television programme is no excuse to avoid going out to
meet someone, now that we have video recorders. Mobile phones have
led to a massive amount of communication, especially among the young,
and text messaging has led to the creation of a whole new written
language.
The impact
of these new behaviours on children and young people have been considerable.
(For all I know there may be a number of people who have earned PhDs
from studying these things, but I’ve not read their theses,
and these are just my own observations.)
Children
are now much more confident with technology. A hundred years ago,
technology in the home was very limited, and running a household consisted
of passing skills on from one generation to the next, with the accumulated
knowledge and wisdom of the elders counting for something. Forty years
ago, if a family acquired a new piece of machinery, the father carefully
read the instruction book and learnt how to use it before letting
others have a go, and it was a special occasion when a child was allowed
to try it out. Now, children are straight into the latest gadget,
trying out all the buttons and learning what works faster than their
parents.
It is
perhaps the new-found confidence of young people that led to their
political activity at the start of the Iraq war. No teacher or parent
told them that they should demonstrate or take a particular line.
Their action was a spontaneous response to the situation, and it augurs
well at a time when formal organised politics is seen as increasingly
irrelevant by the electorate.
Fashion
and music are two more examples where behaviour is now very different
from the past. There was popular music - but not a teen culture -
before the 1950s. Since then, teenagers have been a distinct force
to be reckoned with in music and 
in
the styling of clothes. There are, of course, trend-setters and commercial
influences at work in these fields, but there are also mass movements
which are built up of thousands of free choices made by individuals,
such as the craze over the last few years for tattoos and body-piercing.
That
young people have choice is a good thing and modern technology gives
them a lot of scope for self-expression, but it has to be admitted
that some of their spontaneous choices are harmful, and greater scope
can mean greater freedom to abuse. Mobile phones, for example, have
led to a new dimension in bullying. Freedom to travel has led to excessive
behaviour in some Mediterranean holiday spots. Greater access to alcohol
and drugs has caused serious harm for a lot of young people. I suspect
that the volume of a lot of pop music will take its toll in early
hearing loss as well.
On balance,
though, young people today have greater opportunities than ever before.
They are less restricted by the traditions and customs of their elders
than ever before. It remains to be seen what sort of society they
will create, which changes will be temporary and which will change
our ways of living permanently. You can be sure, though, that they
will produce some spontaneous group behaviours which are outside the
ways they have been taught to behave. Let us hope that these changes
are creative, developing and sustaining the life of the community
and making the world a better place to live in.
