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Rage to Righteousness: On the Evolution of Social Media Rage Baiting
Although I am chronically online, many years ago, I made the vow to stop arguing with people on the internet. My job, mission, or ministry is not to ensure that everyone I see online knows the same things as me. Or at least that’s what I tell myself.
While I am proud to say that I have been managing my overwhelming urge to critique the flawed arguments of online commenters and content creators, I have recently encountered a challenge testing my ability to change. Occasionally, I come across videos that are blatantly or outrageously incorrect. This incorrectness is often demonstrated by a mismatch between the video’s content and the accompanying caption or spoken words.
While reviewing the comments on these videos, I noticed that many viewers pointed out the inconsistencies between the content and the captions. They rushed to highlight what was incorrect in the videos. However, the creator typically did not engage with these comments.
After seeing a few of these videos, I realized that the content creator knows there is an issue with the content. In fact, they have purposely placed a problem or inconsistency in the content to generate more comments. And I have begun to call this type of content “right-baiting.”
Like rage-baiting, right-baiting attempts to manipulate our natural emotional reactions and psychological responses to influence our engagement with content. While many people can easily recognize when content is designed to provoke anger, it is much harder to notice when it targets the desire to correct others or be perceived as correct. Therefore, I want to explore the relationship between rage-baiting and right-baiting and what this type of content indicates about the evolution of online discourse.
Rage-Baiting 101: The Art of Provoking Outrage in the Digital Era
In contrast to what I see as right-baiting, many people are familiar with rage-baiting. Rage baiting is a…
