1. How does your topic promote social order and development?

Collective behavior, to quote is the voluntary, often spontaneous activity that is engaged in by a large number of people and typically violates the dominant group norms and values. Simply, it describes the actions, thoughts and feelings of a relatively temporary and unstructured group of people. There are various types or forms of collective behavior including crowds, panic, fads, fashions and public opinion. Today, some forms of collective behavior and social movements are directed towards air pollution, water pollution and the fluctuating increase in the price of diesel. Collective behavior occurs as a result of some common influence or stimulus that produces a response from a collectivity. Collective behavior promotes development in several kinds of ways. One of this is the popularity of blogging in the internet. A blog, short for web log, is an online journal maintained by an individual who frequently records entries that are maintained in a chronological order. People who self-publish blogs are widely diverse in their interests. Some may include poetry, discussions on certain activities such as body piercings. Readers share a common interest with the blogger on the topics, the person is writing about, but these individuals have never met and probably will never meet each other in a face-to-face encounter. Another type of development comes with fashion. Fashion is a currently valued style of behavior. It applies to art, music, drama, literature, architecture, and more common in clothes, among others. In preindustrial times, clothing styles remain relatively unchanged but because of industrialization, fashion became more important because people embraced the modern way of life. Reasons on the existence of fashion includes: (1) Some cultures value change, which for theme means, whats new is good; (2) Many industries promote or even dictate change in the name of profit and; (3) Most fashions from the elite class were modified by the middle and lower class which gives them prestige of possessing a high status symbol. Fads, on the other hand, also promote development in such a way that it is temporary but widely copied activity enthusiastically followed by a large number of people. An example of fad, is the emergence of the jejemon which then followed by the beckymon; the dance otso-otso followed by the pamela; and the colorful ballers given by the politicians during elections which then followed by the crazy bands. Collective behavior, on the other hand has many flares when it comes to social order. For any behavior to be defined sociologically as collective behavior, it has to be unconventional, unexpected, unusual and relatively unstructured and spontaneous. Some activists have found that they cannot get their point across unless they go outside established institutional patterns and organizations. An example of this is when transport groups initially tried to work within established means through government agencies to solve the problem about oil price hike. However, they learned that their problems were not being solved through official channels. As the problem appeared to grow worse, organizational responses became more defensive and obscure. Accordingly, some transport groups began acting outside of established norms by holding protests and transport strikes. Riots, a type of acting crowd is fueled by deep-seated emotions but is not directed at one specific target. It is moreover triggered by fear, anger and hostility. The London riot is an example which started when a black guy was shot by the police. It started out as a peaceful protest demanding for justice which ended up in riot which further spread to other parts of London. Rumors may be a casual factor in riots. It has been suggested that they are often a substitute for news because as rumors travel from person to person, they become leveled or simplified and sharpened or focused on certain details. Panic, on the other hand, occurs when a large number of people react to a real or perceived threat with strong

emotions and destructive behavior. This may lead to further destruction where people will act in a disorganized and chaotic manner. That is why it is forbidden to shout fire in a crowded theater, because whether there is really a fire or not people would start running for the exit in a chaotic manner. Mass hysteria is very similar to panics except that it tends to last longer and can be spread by the mass media. A very particular example of this was when the beginning of the AIDS epidemic, not much was known about the disease except that it was obviously infectious and deadly, and, it seemed to spread among unpopular categories of the population (homosexuals and IV drug users). In some communities, infected children were driven out of school for fear that they might infect others through casual. Public opinion on the other hand, is so important that all political parties, government and businesses use polls and surveys and multiple institutes exist dedicated exclusively to this task. Many people are not interested in all aspects of public policy but are concerned about the issues they believe are relevant to them. Today, people attempt to influence elites and vice-versa. Consequently, there is a two-way process that occurs in the dissemination of propaganda. Although many thinks of propaganda in negative terms, the information provided can be correct and can have a positive effect on decision making. An example of this is the grassroots environmental activists which attempts to influence public opinion so that local decision makers will feel the necessity of correcting a specific problem through changes in policy. Although activists do not start seeking out broader social change, they often move into that direction when they become aware of how widespread the problem is in a larger society or on a global basis.