I'm obviously too old to understand the need for constant connection, knowing where everyone is and what they're doing. Maybe the hive will compensate for what seems to me to be the inevitable loss of individual imagination, comtemplation, the virtues of solitude etc.

For better or worse, the internet means that the crowd/mob might be led/motivated by a broader range of individuals than the usual suspects standing on a table in a beer hall somewhere. People that would never lead a movement IRL may lead one in cyberspace - again, for good or ill. That's the ideal at least. In fact, I think that already we see the usual folks secretly funding 'movements' e.g. 'astroturf', planting memes etc. Even supposedly liberal governments are beginning to try to restrain things on the 'net as well. You just can't have anyone saying anything -someone might actually speak the truth. At any rate, like everything else, I think Eric Hoffer pretty much sums it up,

"Every great cause, begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket."

"Democracy is a pathetic belief in the collective wisdom of individual ignorance." - H. L. Mencken