#week 11

Justin Herbert with a fan behind-the-scenes at the KIND Snacks "Choose Kind" commercial for World Kindness Day [c. Nov 2025]

@summer-of-bad-batch

Week 11: bonus prompt: injury

A controversial opinion, an intentionally bad cooking video or a creator saying something ridiculous will get millions of comments and reactions

And that is where things become interesting. What if the real purpose of a viral post was to make people angry enough to comment and share to keep the conversation going? 👀

Social Media Was Built For Connection… But Conflict Became Part Of It ⚠️ Social media was originally to be a space where people could connect, share ideas and engage with communities across the world. It enabled the ordinary users the opportunity to join in conversations that were once controlled by traditional media and institutions. But digital spaces are also places where conflict, disagreement and power exists. MediaSmarts (2022) defines digital citizenship as a responsibility to engage in digital environments in a responsible and ethical way.

Meanwhile, social media governance involves the way social media are governed by policy, content moderation, community guidelines and technologies systems that determine what kinds of behaviour are encouraged or restricted (Kumar & Gupta, 2023). Sometimes conflict is planned🎭. Welcome To The World of Rage Bait 🤬🎣 In the past, trolling was often associated with anonymous users who posted offensive comments simply to annoy other people.

However, trolling has evolved into a content strategy where some creators will produce controversial or annoying content on purpose because they know anger can get attention 💀.

This strategy is known as "rage bait" - content that trigger strong emotional reactions especially anger so audience will interact through comments, shares and debates (Aktay, 2025).

The strange thing is that the algorithm does not necessarily care whether people are making positive or negative comments. Both reactions are considered engagement. Human attention is a strategic resource as user engagement is converted into data, visibility and advertising profit. Each comment and reaction can be valuable because it keeps users active on the platform.

When Food Waste Becomes A Strategy For Views 😡 A popular rage bait on TikTok is by a content creator Wasil Daoud who gained fame for making videos about excessive food waste. Many viewers found his content to be wasteful especially as he pours large amounts of ice cream, chocolate syrup and other food into the oversized bowl.

Users watched because they were shocked, frustrated and wanted to criticise the behaviour 😤.

Many viewers did not watch because they enjoyed the videos. Instead, they watched because they were frustrated and wanted to criticise the behaviour. People left angry comments, even shared the videos to criticise them and debated whether the content should even exist online.

Every comment, share and argument became engagement that allows the algorithm to recognise the content as popular and push it to even more users. Sometimes, outrage itself becomes the reason why content succeeds 🔥. Rage Bait Exists In Local Content Too 🇲🇾 Well, rage bait is not limited to international creators. Local social media content can also generate attention through creating conflict and curiosity including public debate. The viral ST Rosyam Mart “couple argument” video, where a man and woman were seen having a heated argument inside the supermarket.

The video quickly went viral, with many viewers questioning whether the argument was genuine or a scripted marketing strategy to attract attention. While some viewers were curious about the situation, others criticised the campaign as misleading and an unethical way of creating unnecessary drama for publicity.

It shows that controversy can become a powerful form of engagement, where conflict itself helps content spread across social media platforms.

But What Happens When Conflict Becomes Harmful? 🚨 Not all online arguments are harmless entertainment.

Online harassment research shows that online conflict can escalate into serious issues such as cyberbullying, attacks, hate speech and coordinated harassment (Schoenebeck et al., 2023).

One important issue is gendered harassment where women and gendered minorities often receive attacks based on their appearance, gender identity and sexuality, not just their opinions (Enock et al., 2026).

This shows that not everyone is equally affected by online conflict. Sometimes, legal action is required in extreme cases. Governments across the world have introduced laws relating to cyber harassment, online threats and harmful digital behaviour ⚖️. However, legal solutions are complicated because governments must balance user safety with the protection of freedom of speech.

So... Who is Responsible? The Users or The Platforms?🤔 This is probably one of the biggest questions in social media governance. Users have a responsibility to practise good digital citizenship by thinking critically before participating in online conflict.  Sometimes, responding to harmful content is necessary. But there are also times when commenting is just a way of giving attention to people who are intentionally seeking outrage.

But the responsibility shouldn't be entirely on the users. Social media companies also have a responsibility through corporate social responsibility (CSR) to create healthier digital environments. This includes upgrading moderation systems to make platforms safer and rethinking algorithms that reward harmful engagement (Rehan et al., 2024)

So if a platform is making profits from the conflict, can it really claim to be completely neutral? 👀 Maybe The Real Product Is Our Anger 🌙 The most uncomfortable truth about rage bait is that it shows how the modern internet works. Success online is no longer only about creating the best content. It is all about grabbing attention and anger is one of the easiest feeling to grab.

Of course, not all arguments on the internet are bad. Social media has also allowed important debates, activism and social change to happen✊. But as digital citizens, we need to recognise the difference between meaningful discussion and content that is intentionally provoking us for views.

So the next time a video makes you immediately want to open the comment section and argue because it made you angry… maybe pause for a moment 😭. Ask yourself: Am I actually contributing to a real conversation or just turning my anger into someone else’s views?💀 References Aktay, H. (2025, December 2). Rage Bait | KÜRE Encyclopedia. Kureansiklopedi.com. https://kureansiklopedi.com/en/detay/rage-bait-e43f6 Enock, F. E., Stevens, F., Sippy, T., Bright, J., Cross, M., Johansson, P., Wajcman, J., & Margetts, H. Z. (2026). Gendered inequalities in online harms: Fear, safety work, and online participation. Computers in Human Behavior, 181, 108990. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2026.108990 Kumar, A. M., & Gupta, S. (2023). Governance of Social Media Platforms: A Literature Review. Pacific Asia Journal of the Association for Information Systems, 15(1). https://doi.org/10.17705/1pais.15103 MediaSmarts. (2022, August 8). What is Digital Citizenship?. https://mediasmarts.ca/digital-media-literacy/general-information/digital-media-literacy-fundamentals/what-digital-citizenship Rehan, M., Bukhari, S. S., & Aamir, A. A. (2024). Digital Media’s Influence on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Public Perception of Brands. ResearchGate, 3(10), 131–137. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385812855_Digital_Media