Mob Madness

When you hear the words "mass hysteria," what do you think of?  The reaction is probably along the lines of something bad happening in society like the Salem Witch Trials, the Mayan Apocalypse, or even the Red Scare.  Most of the time mass hysteria hurts the idea of a perfect world, but sometimes mass hysteria is good.  

You're probably trying to think of times when mass hysteria is actually good, well there are many times, like the release of the original iPhone.  The release signified the beginning of a new wave of technology, the smart phone era.  Another time that mass hysteria didn't lead to violence or didn't help hurt anyone was the formation and release of boy bands like *NSYNC and BSB (Backstreet Boys). These boy bands linked teenage girls from all over the world because of their mutual love of BSB or *NSYNC.  While on the more political side of things, the Arab Spring was an extremely important example of mass hysteria, because it symbolizes the desire for freedom against oppressive regimes in Middle Eastern countries.  

There are many more times that mass hysteria was used to better the world and that shouldn't dampen our perspective on what we think mass hysteria to be.