Latest / Mini Scroll / The Rise of Ragebait: From Bizarre Influencer Lies to Insidious Political Strategies

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The Rise of Ragebait: From Bizarre Influencer Lies to Insidious Political Strategies · Mini Scroll

• 0:00
  In early 2024, Internet celebrity JoJo Siwa started
• 0:04
  teasing a rebrand. A former child star known for
• 0:08
  her sparkly bows, kid friendly YouTube channel, and a wildly
• 0:12
  successful stint on Nickelodeon, JoJo was on the cusp of turning
• 0:15
  20 years old and seemed ready to enter a more mature phase of her
• 0:20
  career. But as JoJo began promoting her
• 0:23
  new era, fans started noticing that everything from her content
• 0:28
  to her costumes to the down bites that she was giving on red
• 0:31
  carpets felt curated with a specific intention in mind to
• 0:36
  shock the Internet and garner attention, for better or for
• 0:40
  worse. Soon, JoJo faced allegations of
• 0:43
  baiting her audience for engagement and the media for
• 0:46
  headlines. As a result, the authenticity of
• 0:49
  Jojo's new mature era came into question.
• 0:53
  Was JoJo Siwa really ready to break free of her child star
• 0:56
  baggage, or was she actually using this opportunity to drum
• 1:00
  up more publicity for herself through a somewhat new online
• 1:05
  practice called rage bait? This is an exploration into the
• 1:10
  steep rise and proliferation of rage bait content from innocuous
• 1:15
  celebrity PR plays like JoJo Siwa's to more insidious
• 1:19
  strategies in tech and politics intended to keep our digital
• 1:23
  ecosystem hostile and possibly more importantly, divided from
• 1:30
  Centennial world. I'm Lauren Meissner and this is
• 1:32
  Infinite Scroll, a podcast about Internet culture, the creator
• 1:36
  economy, and how social media is shaping Gen.
• 1:39
  Z. Welcome back to Infinite Scroll,
• 1:41
  everyone. First, before we get into
• 1:44
  today's episode, I wanted to say such a huge thank you to all of
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  thing pieces from the Internet that week.
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  And also please follow me on Instagram and on TikTok.
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  Lauren N Meissner for my middle name Nicole on TikTok.
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  stuff on both of those platforms, and I will be posting
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  even more of that in the coming years, so definitely give me a
• 3:33
  follow. It's no secret that people
• 3:40
  online are often angry. Whether it's the anonymity that
• 3:44
  the Internet allows or the sense of protection that comes with
• 3:47
  being behind a screen, social media is a hotbed for hostility.
• 3:51
  Users can be more intense, more reactive, and let's be honest, a
• 3:56
  bit more ruthless than they might be face to face.
• 3:59
  For a long time, this sort of rage was mostly a reaction.
• 4:02
  In the early 20 tens, YouTube videos would be flooded with
• 4:06
  hate comments and dislikes. Baby by Justin Bieber might ring
• 4:09
  a bell as one of the most disliked videos back in the day.
• 4:14
  In the TikTok era, you'll find a similar phenomenon with comment
• 4:17
  sections brimming with snarky comments.
• 4:20
  But all of this anger seemed to be coming from users, ordinary
• 4:24
  people letting out their frustrations, not necessarily
• 4:27
  the celebrities or content creators themselves.
• 4:31
  Recently, though, this dynamic has shifted, with more and more
• 4:34
  creators turning this anger into an opportunity.
• 4:37
  They're not just ignoring the rage, they're tapping into it,
• 4:41
  using it to their advantage. Enter rage bait.
• 4:44
  Now, you've probably heard of click bait, sensationalized
• 4:48
  headlines or video titles that encourage and mislead users into
• 4:52
  clicking on something that they didn't necessarily intend to.
• 4:55
  Think of rage bait as the angrier version, designed to
• 4:59
  provoke outrage and get people talking, sharing, and engaging
• 5:02
  with content, even if it's in a heated or negative way.
• 5:06
  Quote rage bait isn't just common online anymore, it's
• 5:09
  taking over the Internet and changing the way we view content
• 5:13
  in the process, CT Jones writes for The Rolling Stone.
• 5:16
  Many early forms of Internet content were rage bait adjacent,
• 5:20
  meant to stop people in their tracks long enough for them to
• 5:23
  have an emotional response and then engage.
• 5:26
  But in the influencer era, a new character has emerged, the rage
• 5:30
  bait influencers. I'm sure we've all come across
• 5:33
  rage bait creators at some point while scrolling through social
• 5:36
  media, maybe even without realizing it.
• 5:39
  These creators post content designed to frustrate viewers so
• 5:43
  much that it compels them to engage.
• 5:45
  Whether it's sharing a cringe worthy staged interaction,
• 5:49
  slipping in an obvious spelling mistake in a caption,
• 5:51
  deliberately misusing a product, or making a wildly outrageous
• 5:56
  statement, the goal is the same to provoke a reaction.
• 6:00
  In this world, any engagement is good engagement.
• 6:03
  Obviously, this isn't exactly new.
• 6:05
  As Tanya Chen notes for Business Insider quote for as long as
• 6:09
  cable news punditry has been around, people have weaponized
• 6:12
  anger to captivate audiences. But this trend has intensified
• 6:16
  with the normalization of algorithms and the rise of short
• 6:19
  form video, which make it easier for Internet users to take
• 6:23
  information out of context and push creators to cater to the
• 6:26
  attention economy. As TikTok has democratized
• 6:29
  Internet fame, with nearly every Internet user now chasing
• 6:33
  virality, rage bait has become increasingly common.
• 6:36
  Google Trends data reveals that the term rage bait saw little to
• 6:40
  no searches until the end of 2022, but it experienced a huge
• 6:45
  surge in interest early last year and has continued to rise
• 6:48
  steadily since then. As for why this is the case, CT
• 6:52
  Jones makes the claim that this is partly because content is
• 6:55
  often taken out of context when re shared across different
• 6:59
  platforms. We've discussed this before,
• 7:01
  especially after the boots and a slicked back bun trend went
• 7:04
  viral last year, where Andrew Tate shared a clip of employees
• 7:07
  participating in the TikTok trend on X.
• 7:10
  Even though today's viral landscape feels siloed, where
• 7:13
  we're all locked into our own algorithms, it's easier than
• 7:16
  ever for content to spread across platforms that the
• 7:19
  creator may not have intended. And the downside?
• 7:22
  Videos that might clearly be rage bait on one platform can be
• 7:26
  taken completely seriously on another, with hate being
• 7:30
  directed to creators at a greater intensity.
• 7:32
  Quote. As apps like X and Facebook
• 7:34
  become shells of their former selves, cross-platform posting
• 7:38
  means rage bait influencers can often be thrust in front of new
• 7:42
  eyes and have absolutely no context and simply engage
• 7:46
  further with more social apps involved.
• 7:48
  The bait doesn't just work, it thrives, Jones continues.
• 7:53
  Now, the opportunities for cross-platform virality are just
• 7:56
  one of the reasons why rage bait has taken off in the digital
• 8:00
  space. When we step back and consider
• 8:02
  how much the digital landscape has changed and how volatile
• 8:05
  it's become, it's no surprise that rage bait has been
• 8:08
  increasingly normalized. We talk a lot about X on this
• 8:12
  podcast, but it really is the perfect example.
• 8:15
  While users were already sending hate and fighting on Twitter,
• 8:18
  especially within Stan communities, things took a turn
• 8:22
  when Elon Musk took over. He often feeds into rage bait,
• 8:26
  responding to problematic tweets with one word replies seemingly
• 8:29
  to Ample. As the platform's owner, Musk
• 8:32
  sets the tone for the space, and his actions have undoubtedly
• 8:35
  contributed to a more hostile environment.
• 8:38
  While this behaviour hasn't been labeled as rage bait on a
• 8:41
  widespread scale, Musk would understand the impact of these
• 8:44
  tweets, especially given his role in shaping the platform's
• 8:48
  culture. In a roundabout way, X has also
• 8:50
  encouraged the rise of rage bait on other platforms, particularly
• 8:54
  Threads. Reports suggest that Threads,
• 8:57
  Meta's competitor to Twitter, has been capitalized using on
• 9:00
  rage bait to boost engagement. Although Threads quickly amassed
• 9:04
  over 100 million users after its launch in 2023 and reached
• 9:08
  175,000,000 monthly users by mid last year, it has struggled to
• 9:12
  carve out a unique culture that draw users in.
• 9:15
  Instead, many former Twitter users are sticking with X or
• 9:19
  migrating to other platforms like Blue Sky before considering
• 9:22
  Threads. In an episode of Wired's Gadget
• 9:25
  Lab podcast published late last year, journalist Lauren Goode
• 9:28
  and Michael Calorie discussed how the key to virality on
• 9:32
  Threads is quote to ask a ridiculous question that enrages
• 9:36
  your followers so much they just have to chime in to answer you,
• 9:39
  mock you, or berate you. In other words, posting rage
• 9:43
  bait. They also spoke with Business
• 9:45
  Insider senior correspondent Katie Natopolis about her
• 9:49
  personal experiment with rage bait on Threads.
• 9:51
  She theorized that replies, rather than reposts, are the
• 9:55
  driving force behind what goes viral and gets shown on feeds on
• 9:58
  the platform. I had noticed that the Threads
• 10:01
  algorithm seemed weird, Natapolis explains.
• 10:04
  The kind of stuff I was seeing that seemed to get a lot of
• 10:06
  comments was often people asking for advice in describing
• 10:10
  domestic problems like family problems, parenting problems,
• 10:13
  relationships, and asking for advice.
• 10:15
  And they would get tons and tons of comments.
• 10:17
  So I experimented with posting these social etiquette kinds of
• 10:21
  questions, asking for advice, but in the persona of an
• 10:24
  incredibly stupid person. But Threads isn't the only
• 10:28
  Twitter competitor that is using rage bait.
• 10:31
  There have been recent reports that Blue Sky is dabbling with
• 10:34
  this kind of strategy to boost engagement.
• 10:36
  According to Ryan Broderick in a recent edition of the Garbage
• 10:39
  Day newsletter, there has been a quote invasion of Blue Sky
• 10:43
  disagree bots. In an effort to build its user
• 10:46
  base and boost engagement, the platform appears to be populated
• 10:50
  with bots whose sole purpose seems to be to be
• 10:53
  confrontational. Quote Blue Sky is awash right
• 10:56
  now in reply bots that basically just fight with you about
• 10:59
  whatever you post. I didn't notice them right away
• 11:01
  because most Blue Sky users also act this way, Broderick
• 11:05
  explains. At this stage, the true purpose
• 11:08
  of these bots remains unclear, but Broderick suggests they may
• 11:11
  be part of a broader experiment to determine what kind of
• 11:14
  engagement tactics work best on Blue Sky.
• 11:17
  While rage bait and engagement farming invites hate platforms,
• 11:21
  creators and users who lean into it appear unfazed by the
• 11:25
  negative messaging. Instead, they leverage it to
• 11:27
  grow their followings, build their presence, and drive
• 11:30
  engagement. Social media platforms arguably
• 11:33
  play the most significant role, as their algorithms are designed
• 11:37
  to prioritize engagement above all else.
• 11:40
  And for these creators operating on these platforms, pursuing
• 11:43
  fame, influence, and virality is the ultimate goal, with Rage
• 11:47
  Bait offering a quick path to achieving it.
• 11:50
  To truly understand how prolific this kind of content has become,
• 11:54
  it is worth looking at some of the most viral examples of rage
• 11:58
  bait, aside from all of the podcast Bros and manosphere
• 12:01
  creators. More on them in a bit.
• 12:04
  One of the most recent examples of a creator engaging in
• 12:07
  seemingly intentional rage bait was YouTube Nicocado Avocado.
• 12:11
  A mukbang creator, Nicholas Perry, who goes by Nicocado
• 12:15
  Avocado on social media, built a following of over 4 million from
• 12:19
  sharing videos of himself eating massive amounts of food over the
• 12:23
  course of about 8 years. His viewers watched as Nick
• 12:26
  engaged in both click bait and rage bait practices, gaining
• 12:29
  weight for the sake of his content, sharing intimate
• 12:32
  details of his health and sex life, having turbulent meltdowns
• 12:35
  on camera, and more. On a 2019 episode of the now
• 12:39
  defunct Dish With Trish podcast, Nick told Trisha Paytas quote
• 12:43
  the viewers like when I'm upset, they like when I'm crying, they
• 12:46
  like when I'm hyper, he said, before admitting that he
• 12:49
  intentionally makes his video titles quote click baity.
• 12:53
  That is until last year, when Nick shocked the Internet,
• 12:57
  revealing that at least some of his content had been a lie.
• 13:00
  In September 2024, Nick uploaded a video titled 2 Steps Ahead in
• 13:05
  which he revealed he had lost £250.
• 13:09
  The catch? He did so in secret, only
• 13:11
  posting pre recorded videos for two entire years while he lost
• 13:16
  the weight, calling this the quote greatest social experiment
• 13:19
  of his life, Nick. Nick's revelation was met with
• 13:22
  mixed reactions, many noting that this social experiment is
• 13:26
  evidence that Nick was intentionally exploiting
• 13:29
  sensitive points such as weight, health and mental health for
• 13:32
  rage bait to gain views and to make money.
• 13:35
  Another creator who was frequently accused of creating
• 13:38
  rage bait content is Tik Toker Winta Zesu, a 22 year old
• 13:42
  influencer from New York City. Winta became one of the fastest
• 13:46
  growing rage bait creators of the last year.
• 13:48
  Winta grew her platform of nearly 9, 100,000 by posting
• 13:52
  skits and story time videos about situations that probably
• 13:56
  didn't happen. Though a lot of Winta's content
• 13:59
  could be considered satirical, the creator admitted to The
• 14:01
  Rolling Stone in 2024 that she intentionally does create
• 14:05
  controversial content for views. Quote I realized that videos
• 14:09
  really blow up when there's like controversial things going on in
• 14:12
  the video, she said in the interview.
• 14:14
  When someone asks me what kind of content I do, I usually say
• 14:17
  skits or if I'm talking about those restaurant videos, I say
• 14:21
  satire. I guess it is rage bait too, but
• 14:23
  I don't know why I don't say that.
• 14:24
  I don't really like the term. 1 of Winta's most viral moments
• 14:28
  came in March 2024, when she claimed that she was chosen to
• 14:32
  be a backup dancer for Tyla. In the video, which saw nearly
• 14:35
  29 million views, Winta spliced together clips from what
• 14:40
  appeared to be two different videos, 1 of Tyla dancing and
• 14:44
  cheering at an intimate gathering and another of Winta
• 14:47
  quote UN quote auditioning for Tyla.
• 14:49
  The Splice clips make it seem like Tyler is cheering on
• 14:52
  Winta's dance moves, but there are noticeable differences
• 14:55
  between the venues where these videos seem to take place.
• 14:58
  The comments section is filled with thousands of questions from
• 15:01
  users wondering if this is real or fake because who would
• 15:05
  intentionally lie on TikTok about something that is so easy
• 15:08
  to disprove? Fast forward 10 months later and
• 15:11
  Winta finally admitted the video was a hoax while participating
• 15:15
  in the creator confessions trend.
• 15:16
  Prior to the US TikTok ban, where Tik Tokers revealed ways
• 15:19
  they had lied to their audience over the years, Winta made a
• 15:23
  video saying quote, Thailand never hired me as her backup
• 15:26
  dancer, confirming for users that her most viral moment was
• 15:30
  fabricated to farm for engagement.
• 15:33
  While much of this rage bait may seem harmless by capitalizing on
• 15:37
  shock value moments and trivial frustrations online, there are
• 15:41
  dangerous ways in which it is impacting the digital sphere.
• 15:45
  Consider the manosphere. For those unfamiliar, the
• 15:48
  manosphere is an umbrella term for various online men's rights
• 15:52
  movements that share common views on gender dynamics.
• 15:55
  We've covered the manosphere before on this podcast, like in
• 15:58
  our Looks Maxing episode last year.
• 16:00
  From incels to pickup artist to Gamergaters, the manosphere is
• 16:04
  far reaching. At its core, however, is the
• 16:07
  belief that men are unfairly treated for various reasons,
• 16:11
  with many of these groups formed in opposition to female
• 16:14
  empowerment and the rise of feminism.
• 16:16
  While men may not initially stumble upon these groups
• 16:19
  because they are misogynistic, it's easy to internalize these
• 16:22
  narratives due to the way they're presented.
• 16:25
  Quote The Manosphere appeals to its audience because it speaks
• 16:28
  to the very real lives of young men under the factors romantic
• 16:32
  rejection, alienation, economic failure, loneliness, and a dim
• 16:37
  vision of the future, academics Ben Rich and Eva Boljaca write
• 16:42
  for The Conversation. The major problem lies in its
• 16:45
  diagnosis of the cause of male disenfranchisement, which
• 16:48
  fixates on the impacts of feminism.
• 16:51
  Well, there are various reasons that lead men to follow these
• 16:54
  extremely misogynistic and dangerous belief systems, none
• 16:58
  of which are valid to be honest. Rage bait is a powerful tool in
• 17:01
  stirring them up and drawing them.
• 17:03
  Some of the manosphere's most prolific creators post rage bait
• 17:07
  with the goal of making it go viral.
• 17:09
  Nick Fuentes is one such example.
• 17:12
  We've discussed him before, but for those unfamiliar, Nick is a
• 17:16
  26 year old far right political pundit and live streamer.
• 17:19
  He's been de platformed from platforms like YouTube for his
• 17:23
  controversial and dangerous views.
• 17:25
  Nevertheless, last year he went viral after celebrating the
• 17:28
  outcome of the 2024 U.S. presidential election.
• 17:32
  He posted a disturbed herbing phrase to his 400,000 followers
• 17:36
  on X Quote your body, my choice forever.
• 17:40
  This tweet twisted the pro-choice slogan My body, my
• 17:44
  choice to attack women's reproductive rights.
• 17:47
  In retaliation, women across the Internet doxed Nick, sharing his
• 17:52
  personal information online, with one woman even showing up
• 17:55
  at his home to confront him. If you're interested in the
• 17:58
  ethics of doxing and how this situation unfolded, feel free to
• 18:02
  check out our doxing episode from last year.
• 18:04
  But in terms of rage bait, this post was undeniably designed to
• 18:08
  provoke, and it quickly spread across the Internet, amplifying
• 18:12
  Nick's harmful message. While most viewers may recognize
• 18:15
  it as rage bait, there are dangerous consequences for those
• 18:18
  who don't. For instance, some users might
• 18:21
  believe this messaging, seeing the post virality as
• 18:24
  confirmation and legitimacy. Some Reddit users have also
• 18:28
  argued that the strong reactions from women, many of which are
• 18:31
  entirely valid in a case like this, can pull young men deeper
• 18:35
  into the manosphere pipeline, with many people within this
• 18:38
  group dismissing these comments as irrational and incorrect.
• 18:42
  Extensive research has shown that people often perceive
• 18:45
  comments from women as emotional and are less likely to take them
• 18:49
  seriously or believe them, as academics Teresa Frasca, Emily
• 18:53
  Leskinen, and Leah Warner have noted.
• 18:55
  Quote Emotion has a history of being associated with femininity
• 18:59
  and irrational, disorganized behavior, with women being seen
• 19:03
  as dispositionally and therefore chronically emotional and
• 19:07
  irrational. As rage bait serves as a tool to
• 19:10
  draw social media users into the manosphere, it extends to the
• 19:14
  broader right wing space. In 2022, the Atlantic reported
• 19:19
  that rage baiting was a prevalent tactic among right
• 19:22
  wing online commentators to boost engagement.
• 19:25
  The article, written by Molly Jong Fast, highlighted how
• 19:29
  culture war tropes are designed to incite rage and anger among
• 19:33
  users online. Quote.
• 19:35
  Rage farming is not the same as an inherently polarizing
• 19:38
  algorithm, but it's certainly a way for the right to game these
• 19:42
  technology platforms. Relationship with engagement,
• 19:45
  she writes. It is the product of a perfect
• 19:47
  storm of fuckery, an unholy melage of algorithms and
• 19:52
  anxiety. The ex account Libs of TikTok
• 19:55
  serves as a prime example. Operated by Chaya Raychik, the
• 19:59
  account curates and reposts progressive views from TikTok.
• 20:03
  Onto another platform seemingly framing them as rage bait.
• 20:07
  Quote the accounts impact is deep and far reaching.
• 20:11
  Its content is amplified by high profile media figures,
• 20:14
  politicians and right wing influencers.
• 20:17
  Taylor Lorenz writes for the Washington Post in 2022.
• 20:21
  Its tweets reach millions with influence spreading far beyond
• 20:25
  its more than 648,000 Twitter followers.
• 20:29
  Libs of TikTok has become an agenda setter in right wing
• 20:32
  online discourse. Of course, these tactics are not
• 20:36
  confined to one side of the political spectrum, nor do they
• 20:39
  have to be political at all. Seemingly neutral or
• 20:42
  unaffiliated channels can also engage in rage bait to drive
• 20:46
  engagement. For example, YouTube channels
• 20:49
  like Jubilee sometimes fall into this category.
• 20:52
  For those unfamiliar, Jubilee is run by a Los Angeles based media
• 20:55
  company founded by entrepreneur Jason Wylie with the mission to
• 21:00
  quote, provoke understanding and create human connection across
• 21:04
  the political spectrum. They produce various video
• 21:06
  formats such as Surrounded, where a person, often a public
• 21:10
  figure, is surrounded by and debates several opponents, and
• 21:14
  Middle Ground, where two opposing sides engage in
• 21:16
  dialogue to find a common ground.
• 21:19
  The channel the long established gained significant traction
• 21:22
  during the 2024 presidential election, featuring videos with
• 21:26
  right wing commentators such as Ben Shapiro and Charlie Kirk
• 21:30
  alongside progressive TikTok debater Dean Withers.
• 21:33
  Some of the most popular content from this period included videos
• 21:36
  like Can one woke teen survive Twenty Trump supporters and Can
• 21:41
  25 liberal college students Outsmart 1 conservative.
• 21:45
  Take Surrounded, for example. In this format, a representative
• 21:48
  from one side of the argument faces multiple opponents from
• 21:52
  the other side. The catch is that opponents are
• 21:54
  voted out by people who share their opinion, adding a
• 21:58
  competitive element. Unfortunately, opponents tend to
• 22:01
  be voted out when the participant seems to reach some
• 22:04
  form of agreement. As a result, this setup tends to
• 22:07
  limit opportunities for meaningful discussion and
• 22:10
  dialogue, making it extremely frustrating for the viewer.
• 22:13
  Despite Jubilee's presumed goal, some Internet users have pointed
• 22:17
  out that the editing and format of these videos seem to exploit
• 22:21
  those gotcha moments, effectively transforming them
• 22:24
  into a platform of rage bait. But rage bait doesn't just limit
• 22:28
  effective communication in the digital space.
• 22:31
  It builds animosity between between social media users who
• 22:35
  may hold different opinions or identify with different sides of
• 22:38
  the political spectrum. Social media is already becoming
• 22:41
  increasingly siloed, especially as platforms rely more on
• 22:45
  algorithms and we continue to fall into specific information
• 22:49
  bubbles. As a result, we have less
• 22:51
  context about what others outside our bubble are feeling
• 22:54
  and discussing. Rage bait intensifies this issue
• 22:57
  by making us less inclined to hear opposing views, ultimately
• 23:01
  deepening divisions and fostering greater discord.
• 23:04
  On top of this, rage bait makes it easy to spread
• 23:07
  misinformation. Sensationalist or emotionally
• 23:10
  charged commentary is often stitched and duetted on
• 23:13
  platforms like TikTok, frequently taken out of context.
• 23:17
  While this may be exactly what the creator intended, it can
• 23:20
  easily misrepresent a topic or an issue.
• 23:23
  Though it's human nature to react, the emotional response
• 23:26
  might encourage users to share content without critically
• 23:29
  considering the issue, sometimes without even realizing the
• 23:32
  content is rage bait, furthering the cycle and riling up more
• 23:35
  social media users. Ultimately, the focus on
• 23:38
  engagement at any cost fosters a toxic environment where outrage
• 23:43
  becomes currency and genuine discourse is often overshadowed
• 23:46
  by hostility. In this context, the ends
• 23:49
  justify the means, even if those means involve fracturing online
• 23:53
  communities, promoting divisiveness, and contributing
• 23:56
  to an increasingly hostile digital landscape.
• 23:59
  Though many of us recognize the issues with rage bait and can
• 24:02
  identify when we come across it, users can't help but feed into
• 24:06
  it. There isn't a single explanation
• 24:08
  for this, but thinking of rage bait in terms of hate watching
• 24:12
  offers valuable insight. Hate watching, for those
• 24:15
  unfamiliar, involves watching content you find bad or perhaps
• 24:19
  cringe, often for the enjoyment of mocking or criticizing it.
• 24:23
  In a piece for HuffPost, Brittany Wong outlines a list of
• 24:26
  possible reasons why people love to hate watch, one being that it
• 24:30
  provides an opportunity to criticize people, ideas and
• 24:33
  themes openly. As Jr.
• 24:35
  Iligan, a clinical psychologist, explains to vice, humans are,
• 24:39
  quote naturally voyeuristic, so it's no surprise that we are
• 24:43
  urged to react to certain content.
• 24:45
  Rage bait evokes a similar response to hate watching
• 24:48
  because it often makes viewers feel a sense of superiority.
• 24:52
  Engaging with content that is designed to provoke often leaves
• 24:55
  us feeling critical, feeding into this feeling of
• 24:58
  superiority. However, unlike hate watching,
• 25:01
  which can bring about an arguably twisted sense of of
• 25:03
  enjoyment, rage bait elicits anger and frustration, as we
• 25:07
  have already established by this point.
• 25:09
  Now, while we're obviously not a health and Wellness podcast, I'm
• 25:13
  sure we've all experienced a moment when anger caused our
• 25:16
  hearts to race and adrenaline to spike.
• 25:18
  This can activate our fight or flight response, creating a
• 25:21
  sense of urgency. In this heightened state, anger
• 25:24
  can push us to take action, whether that's confronting
• 25:27
  someone or standing up against an injustice.
• 25:30
  While it can be dangerous, anger also has the potential to be a
• 25:34
  powerful motivator, encouraging us to engage rather than step
• 25:38
  away. And in a social media landscape
• 25:40
  where attention is the ultimate currency, anger might just be
• 25:44
  more effective than hate when driving engagement.
• 25:47
  The term attention economy was first introduced by American
• 25:50
  political scientist Herbert A Simon in the 1960s.
• 25:54
  He framed attention as a scarce resource, presenting it as an
• 25:57
  economic problem. While this concept might
• 26:00
  initially seem disconnected from today's digital landscape, it
• 26:03
  has become central to how marketers, social media
• 26:06
  strategists, and journalists understand the Internet.
• 26:09
  In this ecosystem, both corporations and creators are
• 26:13
  locked into constant competition for our focus quote.
• 26:16
  This economy, which sees our focus as a finite resource to be
• 26:20
  captured and monetized, has fundamentally altered how we
• 26:23
  connect, Kurt Steinhorst writes for Forbes.
• 26:25
  It poses significant challenges that threaten to undermine the
• 26:28
  quality of our attention, our relationships and our
• 26:31
  understanding of the world. This attention economy is only
• 26:35
  intensified by the proliferation of short form videos across
• 26:38
  social media. As we scroll our TikTok for You
• 26:41
  page, Instagram feeds and YouTube Shorts, we are
• 26:44
  constantly being bombarded by bite sized content designed to
• 26:48
  capture our attention. It's addictive, offering instant
• 26:52
  gratification by providing entertainment or information
• 26:55
  without taking too much of our time.
• 26:57
  Whether this is beneficial or harmful is a separate debate,
• 27:01
  but it has undeniably contributed to the normalization
• 27:04
  of emotion driven content like rage bait.
• 27:07
  Videos that provoke strong emotional reactions, whether
• 27:10
  rage, frustration, or even appreciation, provide the
• 27:13
  dopamine hit we've come to expect from scrolling on our
• 27:17
  phones. Though rage bait is
• 27:19
  intentionally inflammatory, this type of content isn't going away
• 27:23
  anytime soon. Rage bait thrives in the current
• 27:25
  digital landscape, driven by algorithms where provoking
• 27:29
  outrage captures attention and boosts engagement.
• 27:32
  Creators and social media platforms alike feed into this
• 27:35
  phenomenon, prioritizing divisive and polarizing content
• 27:39
  that keep us hooked to fuel virality.
• 27:42
  With this understanding, keeping a critical eye on the content we
• 27:45
  consume is more important than ever.
• 27:47
  While some rage bait content appears to be obvious, it's the
• 27:51
  inconspicuous content, like an offensive tweet or a
• 27:54
  confrontational comment, that threatens to keep our digital
• 27:57
  landscape fragmented and hostile for years to come.
• 28:02
  Infinite Scroll is a podcast produced, presented and Co
• 28:05
  written by me Lauren Meisner for Centennial World.
• 28:08
  This episode was researched and Co written by Annabelle Ben
• 28:11
  David. Editing is by Danny Fennick.
• 28:13
  Thank you so much for listening. I love you guys and I will talk
• 28:16
  to you next week. Bye.