The tangled Web we weave

One of the driving forces behind the election protests rocking Iran in the past week is the cutting-edge communications technology that now lets demonstrators instantly send each other Twitter feeds, text messages, and videos, easily bypassing the government's traditional controls on public dissent. You could credit Bill Wasik for proving the effectiveness of such lightning-quick, ground-level organizing.
Wasik is the writer and Harper's magazine editor who six years ago created "flash mobs," spontaneous gatherings of mirth makers who'd respond at a moment's Internet notice to participate in offbeat public displays that resembled performance art. Something of a merry prankster, Wasik asked his acolytes, who were mostly strangers to each other, to descend on a hotel lobby for 15 seconds of synchronized clapping, to visit a rug store and say they'd only make a purchase if they agreed as a group, and to swarm a shoe store while masquerading as tourists of a bus trip.
In addition to coordinating such antics, Wasik is a leading analyst on the rising impact of technology on everyday living, which he showcases in his new book, "And Then There's This: How Stories Live and Die in Viral Culture." One of his precepts is that the Web's free-flowing nature means that trend stories now break out, grow, age, and die much like living organisms, with the number of mouse clicks they draw measuring their impact at every moment. Increasingly we're awash in what he calls "nanostories," such as Scottish singer Susan Boyle's overnight international breakout and eventual flameout.
Still, although Wasik is something of a prophet on technology, that doesn't mean he endorses every aspect of it. In a recent Salon interview, he mused, "I would say that if there's one thing" that's keeping "the novels of the world from getting written right now, it's surfing the Internet. I do think that a lot of creative people want to be working on their craft, they want to be thinking big about what they should be doing, and my belief is that the culture is encouraging them to think small. To me, the challenge is to try to find ways to partially unplug ourselves, to carve out spaces in our lives away from information, away from the sort of constant buzzing of the hive mind."
If you'd like to partially unplug from the relentless info-grid, Wasik will discuss these topics and more Wednesday, June 24, at 7 p.m. at Brookline Booksmith in Coolidge Corner.