Rage Bating on Social Media and How to not Let Get to You

We utilize social media search for answers, for entertainment, and most importantly, to interact with other people we may or may not know, but share similar views via comments, replies, and funny gifs; however, there has been an influx of content that has been designed to ragebait people, many posts are diverse in message, but the emotion is the same. Below I will explain the many type of rage-baiting content that me and you have encountered at some point in type, and the psychology of it.

#1 Flaunting Lifestyle

There is so much content out there on both Instagram, Facebook and Tiktok of young kids flaunting about expensive cars (Ferraris/Lamborghinis), dining (Vandome/Popy Steak as an example, mansions (Miami, NY, Italy), jewelry (Rolex/Tous) and places (Europe/Asia) they go to, we talking about 18 year olds who are mostly course sellers, or trust-fund babies,it is staggering.

Effect: This can make us middle-class hard working Americans mad, because it will take us decades to reach that level of wealth. There is no ROI on following content like this, because this content creators pay high-end editors to do their work.

Solution: It is better not to look at their content, hide the content, so the algorithm does not lure you to being angry and baiting you to look more of this senseless content.

#2 Politics Mainstream in Social Media

In this current climate of law, and culture; some politicians more than others make huge headlines about policies they put in place, by approval of the people who vote for them, your everyday-voter, congress, senate, and others. There are laws that favors the rich, there are laws that benefits the poor, and yet, we are in a conundrum... are politicians on our side or not?

Effect: Depending where you are in life: where you live, if you're politically inclined left or right, your income, your network, how you perceive information, this can be good or bad; there are groups which get ragebaited by some policies, other groups form a protest, sometimes things can get heated and into forming a violent riot; depending how laws, and policies affect the individual or group; some examples are jobs, people's rights, court states or federal cases, etc.

Solution: To not get angry constantly into how politics changes those in power, try to learn the laws in your city/state, ask advice from locals who are in-tuned with some politicians, do not engage in riots, if you want to be part of a protest make sure it's a peaceful one that doesn't affect you physically, drain your mind, and does not put your job or business at risk.

#3 Men vs Women in Dating

One of the most engaging and certainly popular content on social media right now is the gender wars, especially in dating. There are male and female dating experts who coach their followers and possibly new subscribers/viewers about how messed up is the dating landscape. There are regular guys and girls of all walks of life complaining: how difficult is to date, how dating apps are a scam, how women are asking too much but do not give the "box/va"you know what :)", how men want an attractive girl but he doesn't have the "looks, money or status", and men are having higher standards on their own, most of men want nowadays: a woman who is not "plus-sized, who has a low body count or virgin, lol, and age 18-26.

Effect on men: When it comes to men, it's much easier to be rage baited than women in terms of the current dating marketplace; some controversial dating takes from lots of females on social media include: " I need a man who makes $$$ of money if not... no date, he needs to be 6ft tall or higher, He needs to have his stuff together, he needs to have a car, he needs to take care of me, regardless of me as a woman got going on, etc; of course this makes men throw mean comments on those females who's standards seem to be too high, making men think these females are too materialistic, yet keep engaging, if consumed for too long, this could be very toxic for your mental health.

Effect on women: Some topics to spark arguments and controversy in women come from some dating coaches and frustrated men such as: men are superior to women, women are designed to procreate, most women shouldn't work, women are gold diggers, women shouldn't vote, men only care about sex. Obviously most of these hot takes are somewhat misogynistic, but it rages women into engaging with content for entertainment purposes.

Solution from both genders: Most of these standards and statements we see on social media, are only subjective and do not necessarily reflect on your personal life choices, it is important to explore, talk and understand the person with who you are with, your standards and experiences will always be different than anybody else's. Do not engage in a angry manner, it's better not see content that will easily frustrate you and think so negatively about dating, besides, most people making statements and having ridiculous standards are never happy.

#4 Crime News

When it comes to outraging topics, this one of of the most popular, as popular as being spreaded via word of mouth, newspapers, television, and now internet/social media; when a crime happens such as: a store gets robbed, an innocent pedestrian got hit by a car, and the driver run away, a r-ape occured, shootings, or home invasion, it is going to bring out emotional responses on social media, especially if a criminal does get a light punishment, or we as the jury or just viewers at home do not know the final resolution.

Effect on people: What most people want is not be victims of a violent crime or what not, and if something bad happens to the victim, they want the perpetrator to suffer legal consequences of his/her actions. When certain news are spread, people may want to make street justice valid, if the legal court system doesn't deliver the right punishment for criminals, sometimes you may lose faith in the legal system where you reside in by just watching one or two news, sometimes there are violent riots or protest if a there if the result is not satisfactory.

Solutions: As bitter as crime news can be, it can be discouraging at times, but we just have to follow the law, but also arm ourselves with knowledge such as situational awareness, getting updated with technology to protect ourselves with any sort fraud, concealed carry depending on the laws of your country or state, not going to certain dangerous areas, etc, too many crime news on your algorithm can make you paranoid, nervous, and anxious.

Conclusion

There are more ragebating topics that people love to read about, may not care about, or do not want to know all together and want to forget; whether it's on our phones, tablets or laptops, regardless of which application or website we go to, mainstream media will always have something to show us, and it is our job to see, understand and make the decisions into what news are real , do research, and think "is this news worth watching anymore?, does it affect my livelihood? what other type of content I can watch that does not stress me out? those questions can help quite a lot in the long run, because being ragebatted can get you in a mental state of doing something you may regret, if you let emotions take over such as the wrong comment that can get you in trouble, take physical action towards something or someone you you don't like or do not even know personally and other stuff; so keep mindset sharp with more positive news around the world, and only take things you see that will benefit you.

Soon I will write a part two of this topic, stay tuned.

Thank you!