Internet trolling has been around for decades, but a new form of the viral tactic, “rage-baiting,” has taken over social media platforms, like TikTok. Urban Dictionary defines “rage-baiting” as “A video specifically designed to make you mad so that youinteract more withthe video.”
The goal for rage-baiters is simple: make content that will make viewers viscerally angry, then bask in the thousands, or even millions, of shares, likes and comments. The method has become a proven way of becoming popular on the video-sharing platform. With the help of TikTok’s advanced algorithm, the trolling tactic is submerging the “For You” pages of millions of users.
Other than gaining popularity, there are plenty of reasons why some decide to be “rage-baiters.” Psychology Today associates the psychology of trolling with the “dark tetrad,” which consists of sadism, psychopathy, narcissism and Machiavellianism. Sadism, in particular, is the strongest form of the four, as the term refers to one’s “tendency to derive pleasure or enjoyment from being cruel or demeaning to others,” according to Psychology Today.
But trolling and rage-baiting typically entail a two-way street. Social media users can be just as responsible for amplifying the troll’s content. A research study in 2013 from researchers at Beihang University in China found social media users are “far more likely to share or echo angry sentiments than messages containing sadness, disgust or even joy.” Despite the existence of the popular saying, “Don’t feed the trolls,” the tactic is still heavily used in today’s social media with tribalism contributing to its growth.
Trollers or rage-baiters consist of several different forms and degrees. There are the “insult trolls,” who purposefully make hateful comments for the pure sake of it. Then, there are the “offended trolls,” whose content is solely made up of them feeling offended by another’s content to make their viewers also feel offended.
The “show-off troll” typically strives to controversially partake in an online conversation while lacking worthy knowledge of the subject. One of the most prominent types of troll is the “look at me” troll, who exhibits the most absurd behaviors and actions while disregarding what a viewer says about it. Typically, it can be someone filming themselves in a public area, often embodying insubordination or behaviors that many will find unjustifiable in society.
For example, an earlier internet instance of “rage-baiting” included the viral 2019 trend of people opening ice cream tubs, licking them and placing them back on the grocery store shelf. This trend was considered food tampering, which is a second-degree felony.
Some TikTokers won’t declare themselves as “rage-baiters.” TikToker Ryan Gawlik, on the other hand, considers himself a rage-baiter. His content is made up of purposefully making idiotic mistakes and partaking in bizarre clips for his audience to feel enraged by. Gawlik discovered after an inadvertent mistake, he made went viral. He then decided to keep the train going by calling a celebrity the wrong name or biting into a KitKat improperly.
Model and TikToker Winta Zesu went viral after posting several videos of her borderline rude encounters with food industry workers. One viral incident with 13 million views consists of her persistently asking for the brunch menu, despite the waiter telling them that they no longer were serving brunch. Then, one with over two million likes involves a service worker telling Zesu to leave a restaurant because of her continuous behavior.
Apart from restaurant rage-baiting videos, Zesu also makes “gym incident” videos and red carpet videos that acquire similar rage levels. Her rage-baiting posts garner millions of views, meanwhile, all of her non-enraging posts barely gain up to 100,000 views. Zesu has come forth to say that all of these videos are fake and she is playing a character, but a lot of people aren’t always in on the joke.
Users can easily garner audience engagement by either mispronouncing a word or saying something undoubtably wrong. But some TikTokers, like Zesu, show the farther one is willing to go, the more engagement one can gain.
A viewer’s engagement with even one rage-baiting TikTok can lead their algorithm toward more rage-filled destruction. Doing so leads the viewer down a dangerous, unhealthy path while on social media.
There are several ways to thwart this type of content on social media. The main way to combat trolling content is to not engage with it in any way, or “Don’t feed the trolls.” These users rely on getting views, reactions, clicks and shares, so not interacting with them asserts a boundary between the viewer and the troll.
If the content seems along the lines of trolling, users should block them to get them off their personalized feed. But if the creator is posting work that can be deemed hateful, then users should report them so the platform can act accordingly.
Many TikTok users take action by informing others about the trolls, typically by screen-recording the troll’s content, rather than dueting or stitching it so that the user isn’t benefiting from more clicks and views.
It’s important to also practice mental health coping skills, especially when rage-baiting becomes overwhelming. Practice mindfulness skills like setting screentime boundaries, unfollowing and hiding content that evokes stress or seeking out more positive, stress-free content.
Due to modern algorithms, any form of content can be normalized, especially rage-baiting. Through the current field of trolling TikTokers baiting their viewers for engagement, media literacy and lessening one’s engagement with “rage baiters” can help reduce the vast amount of rage bait content on social media.
