W007: Notes
From "influencing" to Rage Baiting, Eye Contact During Pig Shows, Ikea Couture, Chanal - A Rant!
From “Influencing” to Rage Baiting
I’ve been thinking about the growing prevalence of Rage Baiting content ever since bumping into a this creators segment called ‘A Day In The Life Of A Housewife In Dubai’ . After opening with this sentence she proceeds to talk about her outrages budgets, ludicrous spending habits and the questionable behaviour of her husband. Trolling her viewers in her stereotypical Dubai Housewife character.
But if you google her, you find her YouTube, where she appears to be anything but ‘A Housewife’. Instead she seems to be a career trader who wishes to encourage women to get into the industry. In her now 3 year old YouTube page’s opening video, she talks about what she does as a trader and briefly shows her Instagram - where she says she mostly shares her trader journey. There you can see she has a very humble 7k followers.
No shade on the 7k, it’s hard work, but it’s evident from her now 624k followers that once she switched up her content to the ‘A Day In The Life Of A Housewife In Dubai’ format, she found her hook. And the hook was rage. Malaikah knows exactly how to use the algorithm to her advantage and by leaning into the character that infuriates people, she’s making bank.
In another video, which I sadly failed to safe, we see a black man conversing fluently in Mandarin or Cantonese with two Chinese women in China. They were discussing his hair, and the translation he provided said the women asked if it was artificial or burned. My eyebrows furrowed. Yet, judging from the demeanour of both the women and the man, the interaction seemed pleasant and well received. I put it down to ignorance or a rough translation, however being aware of the sensitivity surrounding the topic, I expected the internet wouldn't be as understanding. I opened the comment section and, to no surprise, I found everyone calling the women racist.
But watching the interaction between the three again, something didn’t feel right. It didn’t take me long until I found my suspicions were correct. Those who understood the language frustratingly asked why he translated her incorrectly.
Dakotawint is right. Semantics are important, especially since everyone living on the internet in the past few years would know that a (mis)translation like that will instigate a strong reaction. But… perhaps that was the point… a strong reaction means comments, shares, likes, saves and et voila, a successful, potentially lucrative, account. I can’t say this with certainty of course, but it is possible that this creator was well aware of the type of engagement that would ensued and that he chose to ride that wave.
"If it was an apple pie, I would say a pumpkin tart or something like that, something really silly. And I would put it in the title wrong, and I would put it in the hashtags, or reacting to things, wrong,"
- Ryan Gawlik in a interview with Business Insider
In an interview with Business Insider, Ryan Gawlik (1.3m on TT) said that he started Rage Baiting when his follower growth started to flatline and he noticed people trolling him for getting things wrong — at first, inadvertently. His fellow creator friends then suggested, instead of being bullied he should plant his own careless mistakes and use it to his advantage. "I think having that ability to understand that if you purposely make yourself vulnerable, you can create a situation where you control the hate in a sense," he told Business Insider. He even A/B tested his content one with Rage Bait, one without. The ones with the bait saw at least three to five times more reach and comments.
Researchers at the Beihang University in China agree. Anger is the most viral emotion on the Internet. In their study on how we humans are influenced by friends on social media, they found that friends and followers are far more likely to share or echo angry sentiments than messages containing sadness, disgust or even joy.
I was going to dig even deeper into this form of content but during my research I found this video below. Instead of doubling up I will skip the deep dive, the examples, and will have you check out her’s instead.
What this creator fails to address however, is the potential cultural shift highlighted by this type of content. Historically it has been crucial for us humans to be accepted and seen positively by our communities. Yet, with the emergence of the internet, our perception of ‘community’ has changed. In the past we relied heavily on personal connections and interactions with local shop owners, doctors, dentists, and neighbours. These relations played a vital role in our lives. But today we can lead active lives without ever needing to connect with the people in our immediate vicinity. We no longer need them, so why care what they think?
“I don’t really care what people say about me. If they want to think I am this or that, it’s fine with me. At the end of the day, I’m winning.”
- PinkyDoll in a interview with the Times
PinkyDoll is old news now but this quote of hers has always stayed with me. Although her content back then didn’t feel completely the same as Rage Baiting (today's certainly does), it and especially her attitude feels like it sits within the same sphere.
Of course online hate has been around since the internets conception, and public figures have always faced their fair share of negative feedback. But while a few years back we might have filed this under the guise of ‘haters gonna hate’ - have we now “evolved” beyond simply not caring to intentionally attracting and creating haters as a primary strategy for success? Sure, Rage Baiting would have been strategically used in the past but for some creators it’s now gone past being ‘a’ strategy to become ‘the’ strategy.
I was close to sharing this when I bumped into a TikTok by my friends brand, Fluff. See if you can catch the (mini) Rage Bait below. Contrary to the other content discussed, she hasn’t succumb to degrading her content. Instead she cleverly releases the bait while proceeding to add value.
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I send Fluff’s founder Erika a message about it and she replied with this voice message explaining her accidental Rage Baiting experience and, how after realising it’s effectiveness, she might actually start using it for real. Lol.
My passion lies in exploring the intricacies of human nature and identifying the current trends that captivate the public's attention. They all tells us something about who we are. Regardless of how initially negative my findings can be, I strongly believe that they can be channeled in a positive way — as exemplified by Fluff. If you intend to Rage Bait, try and use your new internet powers for good.
Prize Pigs
A pallet cleanser for you, after the above’s long read. I will keep this short cause no one will care, but this news letter is about things that grabbed me and this did. Old traditions are often riddled with weird and interesting rules. Pig shows are one of them. I did a search and found the official rules here. One of them states; “Your eye contact with the judge is very important. By making eye contact, a judge will almost automatically look at your market hog.” It makes for quality content. Enjoy.
Ikea Couture
The fashionification of IKEA has been good lately (this one was great too). I don’t have much to say about this other then - love. So well done. The photographer, incredible Dutch Carlijn Jacobs, was the perfect pic and the styling by Imruh is just sooo good.
It’s joy, play, creation and good production. In a world of quick-fast-content-overflow it’s so great when you see brands allowing a great team space to play. The image with the 3 chairs is my favourite. Would frame.
Chanel, a rant
In other “fashun” news. What on earth happened here. My son has recently started getting nightmares and maybe it’s because of this. We’re all complaining about the white male designers who dominate the industry (and so we should) so Virginieeeee don’t let us down! Especially not under the iconic Leenas watch! And yes, the girlies love pockets, but do we have to slap it on everything? Who even is the demographic? 15 year old sporty grandmothers? And where did Coco Chanel’s Nr.1 jewellery rule go? “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take at least one thing off.” Then the MUAH, the nails, the casting… I’m confused.
I would really like to be proven wrong here. Perhaps Virginie knows about a niche group of very specific rich people that are waiting for exactly this style of drop? Maybe I can’t see the pure brilliance at play here because I don’t have a yacht? Cause seriously, why did we do this, Virginie, why did THIS happen? The only look that made me go ‘eh’ was this one but even then I’m like, it just looks like a Mango rip-off of the iconic Miu Miu looks I loved. Idk. Maybe Chanel is just Rage Baiting us, in which case - chapeau.
See you next time xx
Omg Eri “scarcity” I loved the pronunciation haha. A great read Mirte!