What ragebait tells us about our emotional landscape

With social media and technology playing an outsized role in our lives, it’s difficult to think that people will not scroll or put their phones away.

A couple of weeks ago, the Oxford English Dictionary declared rage bait as the word of the year. It defined rage bait as “online content deliberately designed to elicit anger or outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content”.

Representational image. (Pixabay)

In a year where grief, disconnection, unpredictability and shock has been a sentiment reflected across therapy sessions, the fact that rage bait gets to be one of the most used words in our vocabulary is telling of something deeper. It’s a reminder that users are aware of the manipulation, and yet fall into the trap of getting triggered and then reacting impulsively and angrily that damages them in the long run. What makes OED’s choice even more interesting is that brain rot was their word of the year for 2024. It’s paradoxical how while on the one hand we boast of technological advancement and the growth of artificial intelligence, and yet, two years in a row, words that describe our decline, helplessness and wrath at being manipulated, have emerged as the verbal leitmotif of our times.

As a therapist, my understanding of rage is that it goes beyond anger. It involves components of injustice, feeling wronged but also a larger sense of powerlessness, feeling overwhelmed and unmoored. When people fall for these online rage baits or choose to rage text, post immoderate comments, they believe that they are regaining their control and power. But it is not so.

Given the volume of information people scroll through daily, many people experience a kind of numbing. They are almost cognitively anesthetized as a result of which what they watch doesn’t necessarily stick. Given this understanding, people who rage bait do so to demand our attention, evoke strong feelings of shock, hurt, and anger, hoping to jolt us out of our cognitive numbness. It’s strange and ironic how the internet seems to give us an illusion of control, while all the while social media is holding our attention, mind and emotions hostage.

With social media and technology playing an outsized role in our lives, it’s difficult to think that people will not scroll or put their phones away. Yet, we do have control over how we engage with online posts and content. To be mindful of the habit of doom-scrolling or compulsively checking the phones every few minutes is a good starting point. I often ask clients to describe what impression inflammatory posts, or clickbait headlines have on them. Sometimes the question itself helps people to step back because they recognize that persistent exposure to social media leaves them feeling hopeless, out of sync, drained and cynical about the world. So, an awareness of what we are feeling can serve as an anchor to manage our online feed. It also helps to acknowledge that gathering more information about a given subject, reading the complete article– rather than just the headline–to be genuinely curious and open-minded about the world, helps. When people find themselves falling for rage or anger elicited by social media I ask them to instead engage with life around them before they react or post a response online. Simple acts of choosing to keep the phone away for even as little as fifteen minutes, listening to calming music, observing one’s breath, reading stuff that evokes playfulness, wonder, enthusiasm or kindliness can change our response. To make conscious, emotionally and intellectually healthy choices is also what adulting is about.