How Algorithms Feed the Fire

Have you noticed that these days, every time you open social media, something may immediately trigger you? A video that can spike your blood pressure. A headline that feels engineered to offend you. Or even a reel that makes you mutter, “What is wrong with these people?” What if I told you this isn’t accidental, instead it’s by design? And worse: it’s a trend you’re being pulled into without realising it.

It’s called Rage Baiting.

Rage baiting is the digital equivalent of poking the bear to get a reaction. Content intentionally crafted to provoke anger, moral outrage, disgust, or tribal conflict, because your emotional reaction is a business model for engagement. The more you react, the longer you stay. The longer you stay, the more the algorithm rewards the creator.

This could be a clip that cherry-picks the most extreme 10 seconds of an event or a commentator oversimplifying a complex issue into a villain-vs-victim narrative. A staged “social experiment” that’s obviously meant to enrage you. What happens? You feel irate, even vile, and you linger on it or comment & engage, just as social media predicted and hoped.

“Rage-Baiting” is Oxford’s Word of the Year 2025, referring to online content characterised by its frustrating, provocative, or offensive nature, specifically designed to provoke anger or intense outrage.

Common Themes of Rage Baiting:

Extreme behaviour presented as “typical”

Controversial themes

Manufactured gender wars and identity conflicts

Staged fights, pranks, or confrontations

Hot takes that deliberately overshoot nuance

Psychologically, rage-bait works because our brains are wired to look for anomalies, prioritise threats and react, not respond. Outrage feels urgent. It activates survival circuits like fight, flight, and freeze. The “Fight or flight impulse, aka anger, immediately creates dopamine, the same neurotransmitter that drives addiction.

How do we make the rage bait cycle worse?

Simple: we engage. Every time you comment “This is disgusting,” or share the post in your group chat, or type an angry reply, or even linger on the screen without scrolling, you train the algorithm to show you more of the same. Your attention is the currency here.

How can you break this cycle?

Let us call a spade a spade. Such content is not going anywhere. Social media is swarming with this content, meant to grab your attention. After all, this yields big bucks for many players. So sadly, it is your duty to:

Recognise the trap when you see it

Don’t engage, don’t comment, don’t share

Audit your feed regularly

Unfollow creators who thrive on provocation

Increase positive and neutral content density

Build intentional digital hygiene habits

Diversify your content diet with better news, credible creators, and neutral perspectives

Pause before reacting to anything emotionally charged

Train your nervous system to stay calm instead of reactive through meditation

Rage-bait thrives on mindless reactivity. It dies when you choose intentional consumption. In today’s era, protecting your mental bandwidth and currency is not a luxury; instead, it’s a necessity.