I hardly believe my revelations are terribly new or elucidating, but this topic has come up over many months in my personal life, and on steemit as well. I feel motivated to write about this trend in social media I've seen of outrage and anger, if only to write out my own take on it.
This aspect of social media is hardly new - though I feel like social engineers have mastered the focus of exposure through outrage by harnessing the emotions of partisanship in politics in late 2015, escalating and amplifying further throughout 2016 into 2017.
Indulgence in Outrage / Outrage Obsession
I'm sure if any of you peruse social media and go through alternate media sources, you will find speculative articles every day (often highly partisan in nature) which outline some type of click bait or otherwise highly sensationalized story about a politician, lawmaker, or even just a stranger with opposing opinions, acting in some way or performing some awful deed which panders to the world view of the user. These types of stories become highly shared and commented, with the primary discussion doubling down on this freshly received propaganda.
I try not to be a cynical person - I often wonder where faculties to think critically go when these pandering kinds of articles are shared despite the sometimes glaring flaws in logic (ex: the headline exaggerates the true the details, there is no proof in the article, the situation itself was an anecdotal one-off situation, etc.). When I see the anger perpetuated in these types of articles, I feel that there is a huge market in social media and journalism to pander to people's sense of outrage and anger that has grown to a magnified level unseen in previous years. I have even seen unsubstantiated memes - merely pictures with text on them and nothing else - be attributed to factual things that happen, and unusual demographics falling for this type of propaganda.
One Potential Cause of Outrage Obsession
I feel as though the addiction to outrage seen amplified in social media these past few years can be attributed to the sense of validation one can feel when your personal thoughts and feelings are backed up by others. This type of group think can provide someone the confidence to double down on their ideals instead of questioning them, or the type of news that they receive.
This condition is not partisan - it is not biased. Anyone is capable of betraying their own sense of logic to give in to a twisted sense of validation provided by outrage from propaganda.
The Primary Motivation - The Spark of Outrage in Journalism
Although outrage is something that's always been on sale in social media, it's never before been so easy or formulaic. I used to write for clients much more often in 2015 and 2016, and the demand for political speculation amplified further even than the levels I saw in 2007 and 2008. Election years often see this rise in demand for speculation, but we're past the election, and the demand is higher than ever. There's lots of money to be made by writing out half-truth drivel and plodding it off as reality as long as it panders to the audience you're trying to market to. The ease of work for lucrative articles is admittedly tempting, even for myself. Perhaps I am stinted then, that I cannot bring myself to post something that only explores one side and contains leaps of logic without feeling I am doing myself and my readers a terrible wrongdoing.
The Potential for an End
I think we've reached a new level of social engineering, and more people than ever are exposed to and submit their minds to propaganda as long as it panders to them and their sense of validation and outrage. For people who are against social engineering and manipulation of this kind, our only goal is to restore someone's capacity to think critically about partisan and emotional issues. Perhaps question why every day they seem to be proven more and more that the way they think is the only right way, and why the news they receive always seems to pander to this validation. Teach the youngest of us this most of all, to prevent their manipulation.
Thank you for reading, I am humbled that you would seek my insights.