In 2015, I wrote Why you want to make readers emotional, and included this line: “In the future, I’d like to avoid articles that make people angry, but even that can have its place.”
As it turned out, anger had its place in my blog post last Monday. Last week’s post did incredibly well on Twitter, sparking a lot of heated discussions about cartoons. While I watched my blog post tweet’s likes and retweets spike, I took a look at what else was catching people’s attention on Twitter. Stuff like:
- A wrestler I’ve never heard of getting dunked on for opining that all anime is bad;
- Kadokawa’s PR trainwreck after firing the director of Kemono Friends;
- The latest stupid thing Trump has done (and there are too many to count).
It’s not a coincidence: people are most likely to share stuff that makes them furious. In a study of online sharing of the New York Times, content that made people emotional (sometimes joyful, but usually irate) was shared nearly ten times as often as other types of content. “If something makes you angry as opposed to sad, for example, you’re more likely to share it with your family and friends because you’re fired up,” the researcher told a reporter.
Additionally, while positive vibes can take effort, reacting in anger is often simple to do. And once you start a negative cycle, the instant feedback can become addicting.
I’ve got an idea about the psychology behind this. Years ago, when I was a newbie journalist, I helped dogpile onto another reporter who was already getting a bunch of hate. It’s not important and I don’t want to get specific, but she wrote an article that upset Magic: The Gathering fans.
I wrote my two cents on it, on Twitter of course, and something shocking happened. Like most journalists who write about geek fandom, especially if they sometimes reference *eyeroll* feminism, I had a slew of hecklers who were always ready to drag me down. What was so amazing was that these people, who were always so quick to insult my articles about geek topics and even quicker to question my knowledge about Magic: The Gathering, were chiming in and agreeing with me! People I usually got daily insults from were palling around with me, and as embarrassing as it is to recount now, it felt euphoric.
If you are wondering why a certain Youtuber went seemingly overnight from inclusive feminist to transphobic Red Piller, this is probably why. White women like us are privileged: we can easily be accepted into communities that used to send you death threats by shifting our message to something haters find more palatable. The only downside is abandoning the people in need who you used to support and oh yeah, also your soul.
After going back to writing my usual articles, and watching my new “friends” go back to being detractors, I realized that the cost of getting approval from these people was too high. However, I remember what it felt like to suddenly obtain the fleeting reward of approval from my most vocal dissenters, simply by putting down another woman journalist. (They couldn’t possibly turn around and do that to me, right? Leopards would never eat my face.)
Pair that approval with that rush of righteous anger that comes with re-sharing something I disagree with, and it’s obvious to me why we can’t quit. We’re hard wired to share negatives, which go viral unlike anything else. Plus, the people who are most capable of making your life a living hell go mellow (and who cares what decent people think?). It’s easy, too: you don’t have to be clever, you only have to be mean.
A constantly angry blog or social media presence can make for plenty of viral material, but in my opinion it’s not worth the elevated blood pressure. It’s also less likely to be truthful. Ever wonder why fake news spreads so quickly? Fake stories are designed to tap into your emotions and make you so mad that you share before you consider checking the facts. You’re angry or frustrated and you want to release some pressure by passing that emotion forward. When I put it that way it sounds kind of selfish, and not like something a happy person would do.
That’s my conclusion: happy people don’t do this. People who feel good about themselves don’t feel an endless urge to stoke their anger, to blow off steam in a way that hurts or calls out others, or feel a need to drag you down so they can feel a little better, even for a moment.
When you’re about to share something that makes you mad, first think about why you’re sharing it. Does it confirm a negative opinion you’ve held about a person or group of people, making you feel smug that you were right? Are you helping to gang up on somebody who said something dumb on Twitter because your boss made you feel powerless in front of a client, and this person is a convenient punching bag for your feelings?
(That’s not to say there aren’t good reasons for sharing stuff that makes you mad—in the New York Times, an exposé of reprehensible conditions at New York nail salons once inspired hundreds to boycott manicures and pressured the governor into ordering an emergency measure. But if we’re honest with ourselves, we don’t always share infuriating stuff with the intention of creating change.)
Our cycle of negativity is irresistible. But it isn’t good for us. It’s nice when one of my blog posts does well, but as it started to get attention, I began to feel as jittery checking Twitter as if I’d had four cups of coffee. Better to share things that make the world a little better, even if they’re not going to go viral.
6 Comments.
I listened to a podcast recently about anger and its association with mental illness. The hosts made a really important point in that anger isn’t the problem. It’s fine to get mad honestly, but I agree with you that, in most cases, we’re not trying to create change with our anger. The hosts said the big problem is that most people don’t know how to process their anger in a way that’s productive. This is a problem with everybody. Not many people know how to handle frustration because they’re taught that they deserve happiness without effort.
And I think that whole experience you went through describes how easy it is to be friends with someone: confirm to their bias, don’t tell them they’re wrong, etc. Reminds me of the “Benjamin Franklin effect” https://www.brainpickings.org/2014/02/20/the-benjamin-franklin-effect-mcraney/
A key note I would add is that the effort needed in order to get positive vibes is going to have some negativity that can drive someone mad at times. I wish more people accepted that kind of negativity.
About your comment on someone going from feminist to a transphobic individual, it’s interesting because we have so many kinds of selves. For example. I know people who were GGers, but hated racism. I knew people who hated GGers, but hated ideas like universal health care. My dad told me he has Chinese friends who were Trump supporters, but they were the kindest people he’s ever met. It often feels like you don’t have a full picture of an individual until prolonged contact. Then again, people will always be complex and media will never give a proper contextual evaluation of them.
If you ask me, I think it’s better not to share anything at all sometimes. There’s a reason why some life advice involves the words “Quit (your favorite social media platform).”
Well said. It’s not that BEING mad is the problem, it’s not knowing how to process that anger in a productive way.
Agreed; well said.
I’ll admit that, for me, someone prone to dark depression getting irate over something like social injustice or the rantings of trumpists for say get me dog piling on. Part of it is that at least I’m feeling something; not that that is excuse. I think it’s also that lashing out, often with humor or dripping sarcasm on the target of my ire, makes me feel better. In some part of my mind it beats loathing myself, even if it’s only an hour or two. I try to be conscious of it, but I still fail on it.
I mean, it’s not like I’m going to change someone’s opinion. It’s a waste of time and not something I’m proud of after the fact.
Also, it can feel good to get likes on comments. Little shot of dopamine.
Just my two cents based on myself.
A big part of this problem is social media. When it was first introduced, people thought it would be this amazing thing that brought people of the world together. What they didn’t count on is that the normal filters people use in real life to maintain civility could easily come undone online where there’s nothing to hold them back. In other words, people didn’t have to check themselves before they wrecked themselves anymore.
Negativity attracts negativity. Which is why when the unfiltered negative thoughts started coming through, people were drawn in (whether they agreed with something or not) People were awarded for their negativity with attention, and were essentially conditioned to associate “attention” with “being negative”
I remember one of the big sites back when I was growing up was Maddox’s site. He had a tendency for saying some pretty negative things (somewhat for comedic effect and somewhat for making interesting social commentary) I loved it. Some people hated it and were offended. Both would come to his site because of it.
And while I think sites like his have their place. There are a lot of places now that have adopted this style because they know it gets reinforcement. In particular, I’ve noticed a lot of journalism sites that try to do clickbait often attempt to be more polarizing than what a situation should normally dictate (Like no matter what you think about Pewdiepie, the reason that he’s constantly in the news is because a particular media wants to capitalize off both the people who are outraged at what he does and those who are outraged by the media’s unfair portrayal of a situation)
Hell, I think it’s relevant to why a lot of young people are depressed and have low self esteem online these days. I remember at one point being friends with some younger girls, and I would see them post selfies of themselves all the time saying “I’m so ugly” No matter how much people tried to tell them otherwise, they wouldn’t accept the compliments. While I don’t doubt there might be some esteem issues related to how women are portrayed in media, I have to say that I believe a large part of people’s desire to think that way comes from the fact that there are people who will give them reinforcement. Afterall, why would you continue to post selfies to the internet if it wasn’t?
I have more I could probably say on this, but I’ll be writing all day at this point :S
[…] Orsini of Otaku Journalist wrote an excellent piece on the double-edged sword of making people angry. It explains a bit behind why we get so fired up sharing articles which…make us fired […]
You bring up a good point that “happy people” don’t do this sort of thing. I would contend that since happiness is temporary, that even if you’re generally a happy person, even if you’re mostly content, there are moments where you do give in to temptation and join the wolfpack or enjoy the adulation that comes with falling away from integrity. We’re all affected by the things around us, the things within us, which make us susceptible to making poor choices – add that to trends in our life and periods where we might especially be likely to add to the noise (“I need more retweets for my stagnating account!” or “I’m so sick and tired of Trump, I’m going to trash him even though I’m always talking about grace and peace!”), and it’s no wonder that we wander into this territory sometimes (or often).
But I’m glad for pieces like this, because they remind me that I can control myself and make better decisions, and that character is more important than unique visitor hits.