I have recently watched a video about a recent social media trend. It usually goes by the name "rage-bait". What is rage-bait? It is provoking rage on social media posts to get more interactions. Notice here that I am not saying provoking "controversy", instead it is "rage". Because controversial engagements are already present in human history for a long time and it might even get you fame at some point. But in this era, controversy is not enough to ignite a storm, since the people are already "tired" of information deluge on social media. In this post, I will try to dig a bit deeper into this new concept. Chatgpt explained this: "Clickbait gets you curious, rage-bait gets you furious". Well said...
I have written about social media and its effects before. I have also written about Linkedin in my blog. We all know that being "trend" is the new big idea these days. And social media algorithms are playing into this trend too, since any kind of engagement is making money. But I have been seeing some change in these social environments recently. People deliberately sharing rage provoking stuff, stuff that even they might not believe or align with, on social media. They are not just voicing a controversial idea or opinion. They are provoking misbehavior or misinformation willingly. Some of them are just trying to be annoying, but it is still causing rage and can be considered harmful. We know this behaviour is aimed to get more clicks and money. But this time, there are dire consequences.
Rage is a dangerous emotion, it might cloud your judgement. So the first thing that these people causing is you losing your control. They are basically trying to push your buttons or pinch your nerves. The usual reaction of people to these contents are not controlled. You need to take a deep breath and think before answering or writing. If you don't think and breathe, there will be an angry mob raging over one idiotic statement or video, wasting their time and brain health. You will also have a digital history that you might regret later.
Apart from controlling yourself against rage provoking content, you will also lose faith in humanity and it will cause depression. Think about it. If more and more people start pumping idiotic stuff on purpose and the content you get is more and more enraging to you and the social media algorithms promote them, you will eventually consider the whole world is like this. Because enraging content is more durable in your memory than everyday usual stuff that you are used to see. You will start remembering the bad and forgetting the good.
Also, too much enraging content will psychologically wear people or make them tense towards each other. The world is problematic as it is right now. Those idiot rage provokers are basically killing the common sense in people. People might actually divide even more strongly because one strong statement can be insulting to another. That can also form angry mobs, literally in real life, fighting with each other.
This behaviour is not much dangerous if you don't give in to the rising emotions or write comments under those posts or share them with other people. But there is one more outcome of this trend. Those people are very inconsiderate while sharing harmful thoughts and information. And some social media consumer can actually pick up what they share as truth or reality. That puts a huge pressure onto your shoulders if you are a good person. You have to write some comment on that tiktok or instagram or youtube or linkedin post and you let people know the actual or beneficial facts. But this way, you also play by the rules of algorithms, boosting the content even more and helping them make more money for more rage provoking stuff. This is basically a war against devil or stupidity and it is tiresome and almost fruitless. In this era, even fighting against bad is making it stronger these days.
I really wonder what would be the next trend in the name of "mastering social media algorithms". Back in the first days, it was creativity that gets you on top. Then it turned into controversy. These days spreading toxic content looks the necessity or the "unspoken rule" of social media. People might eventually get tired and give up on social media or limit it to minimal. Which is ironic. People creating a tool to get together and witnessing what they are with that tool, only to get rid of the tool again. Aside from all these facts, I don't think rage driven content is going anywhere soon. Also social media platforms can't or won't stop this either. We are probably headed into a world where keyboard wars are happening.
But on the bright side, since there are so many toxicity dispersers on social media, people might realize that searching for the good or the ideal is the main goal of humankind. You can't just sit there and watch. The "bad" will try to fight against good. I also have a suggestion. You should be in control of what is going inside your head and what is going on inside your head. Curate the content you follow on the social media carefully. Be in the driving seat of what is coming at you, while emotions are running around. Always try to have self-control. Share and boost what you think is valuable for others. A lot of people are realizing this these days. My app, WhoShares can be a distilled environment. But also, a lot of people might say "why bother". Well, if you don't bother now, you will be bothered later. See you at the next post :)
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