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"It started innocently enough seven years ago as an act of performance art where people linked through social-networking Web sites and text messaging suddenly gathered on the streets for impromptu pillow fights in New York, group disco routines in London, and even a huge snowball fight in Washington. Enlarge This Image Laurence Kesterson/The Philadephia Inquirer Young people filled South Street in Philadelphia on Saturday in what officials said was the latest flash mob to turn dangerous. Enlarge This Image Mustafah Abdulaziz for The New York Times Seth Kaufman was injured in the flash mob Saturday, which he called "a tsunami of kids." But these so-called flash mobs have taken a more aggressive and raucous turn here as hundreds of teenagers have been converging downtown for a ritual that is part bullying, part running of the bulls: sprinting down the block, the teenagers sometimes pause to brawl with one another, assault pedestrians or vandalize property. "

""One group sends a Facebook message to another group to tell them to meet them there, and then they tell everybody else to come," the student added. Not surprisingly, teens say there are a lot of adult misconceptions about the flash mob. For one thing, none of the teens involved used that terminology. "Well, so far as I know, we get these mass text, or Facebooks or tweets telling us all come meet down South Street. But it's not for, you know, mobbing; it's to like have fun," said Kiki Adams, a Philadelphia high school senior who was at the mayhem on South Street. "But you know teenagers," she added. "They get out of control. One person start actin' up so everybody else feel like OK we can do it." The senior confirmed what other teens have also been saying, that the groups involved in the mob incidents have been previously unknown neighborhood party groups with names like AAS - All Adidas S---, or A.B.M. - All About Money - or the Platter Boyz. The groups, which have their own hoodies and post videos on YouTube.com, compete to see who can have the biggest parties or quarrel over boasts or taunts posted online, or "cyber chatting.""

2003 "''Flash mobs'' consist of dozens or even hundreds of well-wired folks who gather suddenly, perform some specific but innocuous act, then promptly scatter. A few weeks ago, for instance, a mob formed at a Toys ''R'' Us in Times Square, stared at an animatronic Tyrannosaurus rex, then fell to the floor with screams and a waving of hands before quickly dispersing. Such events, which have also taken place in San Francisco, Minneapolis, London and Berlin, are getting attention partly because they're weird and partly because the ''mobs'' organize by way of mobile phones and pagers and Web sites. Some observers have written off the phenomenon as a slightly annoying fad, the techno equivalent of streaking. Others detect a ''social revolution'' in the offing. "

"The events are organized through Twitter, Facebook and other social media sites, "The fact they you can get on the internet for 20 minutes and all of a sudden have 600 people for a pillow fight its amazing" said student Ryan Muldoon."

"'m ashamed to admit it. But considering the events of late, I feel I have to fully cop to my own dubious transgression. I was a teenage flash-mobber."