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'Rage bait' is clickbait’s angrier cousin—designed to provoke, outrage, and stir up controversy for clicks and clout. Now mostly used in an ‘internet-speak’ context, rage baiting is often carried out with calculated intent and strategy.
Amongst Gen Z, why is being mean suddenly considered funny or cool? Whatever happened to the 'Treat them with kindness' in their Instagram bios, crew? The same people are now hyping content laced with hostility, sexism, and weird superiority. Spoiler: they were always secretly mean.
Communication skills: 0. Comprehension: Still loading.
It’s no news that negative content boasts of a pull more magnetic—that’s just a human tendency, like it or not. But in this case, when you’re going out of your way to elicit a rowdy reaction to spark a divisive debate, rather than genuine, conducive discussions, you're just being a troll. Or you like playing the victim when others respond defensively. Seems like an attention-seeking problem.
From outrageous food combinations to blatant hating on loved cultural icons—the list is endless. Who are we to judge you for frying ice cream? I mean, I'll still cringe, but sure, to each their own. But then comes the unwanted arm of it: countless comment sections of women creators simply living their life, which are replete with rage-bait comments from burner accounts of men without an iota of decency. Their rage bait includes slut-shaming, over-sexualising, condescending disapproval, and more. It’s like a seafood platter you didn’t order—and you’re a vegetarian.
For the record, rage-baiting goes beyond simply annoying people. It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to call it a tactic of psychological manipulation to divert attention from pressing matters and cause emotional upheaval, only to suit the interests of the baiter. Something politicians are adept at doing globally. And humans being humans, tap into that very trigger by falling into a sense of urgency, prompting us to respond—now, how formulated our response will be, that’s on us.
And this is why I think we’re evolving backwards with regards to communication in the 21st century. First, it was just the ttyls, brbs, and omgs that would ignite discussions on the transmission of knowledge. Now we’re navigating murky waters of irony and satire—often fake, often manipulative, designed to trigger a reaction. Well, this is gratuitously convoluted.
Beyond the immediate engagement it generates, rage-baiting unfortunately ends up serving as a tool for controlling the larger narrative. Information travels at the speed of light today—our fleeting attention spans also don’t help. One simple advice: Read more. Read even the opinions you don’t agree with. Read them till the end. Expose yourself to a plethora of information if you don’t want to end up becoming a puppet of the system that, by the way, serves nobody. Nihilistic, sure. I prefer practical. And also, don’t hate. It’s cool to be kind sometimes, you know.
And yes, stop engaging with rage baiters—the best response is no response, here. Edge them to a gate that never opens. Or else, it's the floodgates, you choose.
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