Nerve-wracking content: what is rage bait?
As you scroll through social networks, do you feel dissatisfied and sense that your nerves are being frayed? Perhaps you have encountered the new concept — "rage bait" — which the Oxford English Dictionary named the word of 2025. The world-renowned British Oxford Dictionary named this term "rage bait". This phrase signifies manipulative tactics aimed at increasing user activity on the internet.
According to the definition by the Oxford University Press, publisher of the Oxford Dictionary, "rage bait" is internet content specifically created to provoke anger or dissatisfaction, irritate, insult, or draw into sharp discussion. Its primary goal is to increase the flow of readers to websites or social media accounts. Although the mechanism of operation resembles clickbait, the main function of rage bait is to deliberately evoke negative emotions in users. According to the dictionary publisher, the use of this term has tripled in the last year.
Impact on feelings: a new stage of manipulation
Commenting on this situation, the president of Oxford Languages, Casper Grathwohl, said that the existence and rapid growth of the term "rage bait" means that we are better understanding that manipulation is being carried out over us on the internet. He noted that if previously the internet sought to capture our attention by exploiting our interests, now it is shifting to influencing our human feelings and response reactions.
According to Grathwohl, this is a natural progression of the ongoing conversation about what it means to be human in the world of technology and the boundaries of online culture.
The shared idea of the two words of the year: cognitive crisis
Last year, in 2024, the Oxford Dictionary chose the phrase "brain rot" as the word of the year. This was also linked to social networks and signified the deterioration of a person's psychological state and decrease in cognitive ability due to the constant consumption of useless information.
In Grathwohl's opinion, a common idea unites the winning words of 2024 and 2025: "Together, they form a powerful cycle in which rage drives participation, algorithms amplify it, and constant interaction leads to mental exhaustion."
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