My Rage Bait Experiment (and How it Backfired) + Realizations After

Anyway, I didn’t want to try it because of my personal beliefs and convictions. I figured that rage baiting isn’t exactly a legit method because you are not really adding value through your posts. You are just inciting anger and triggering people to react in a negative way.

I decided to try rage baiting out of pure curiosity. I run a family travel and lifestyle blog (which has evolved into a mishmash of the things that interest me, like food, culture, toys, and old TV shows that I enjoyed as a kid). Having said that, the comments that I get in my social media posts were mostly respectful and civil. I haven’t experienced dealing with controversial and negative interactions just because my posts were also on the not-so-provocative side.

Furthermore, I wanted to see how people would react to an angry post. At the back of my head, since I don’t have a firsthand experience with bashing, I still believe that many people would engage in meaningful and intelligent conversations even in the midst of a negative topic. Well, I was wrong and I was too naïve for having that mindset.

The issue of a couple changing their dog’s diaper in a baby-changing station was still very hot at that time. I honestly get triggered by those types of topics because I often see people in malls who are somehow similar to those persons, such as owners who put their dogs on top of pushcarts or on chairs.

Anyway, one weekend, I saw a lady whose small dog was sitting on a chair in the food court. I was a bit irritated because the chairs were intended for humans, and I thought that dog owners should be responsible enough to bring their own dog strollers. Normally, I would let similar situations pass and carry on with my day. However, during that day, I decided to experiment and ride with the scorching topic of the couple with their dog in the changing room.

On that day, though, three ideas popped into my head:

Finally, I created my post. I wanted it to be as raw and spontaneous as possible para mas feel yung emotions and, hence, mas mabigat ang dating. I posted it on my Facebook page and on Threads.

Mas naunang nagkaroon ng reactions and comments sa Facebook page ko. Most of those who commented agreed with my post, with one fellow blogger giving her thoughts on the matter and backing her ideas with facts (such as links to articles on the internet debunking the usual ideas of people that dogs are not clean, etc.). She was respectful, and I was thankful for her because I learned and realized some things and concepts that are new to me.

It was very different at Threads, though. I was expecting Threads to be a safer place because I had the impression that it was a platform dominated by users who got tired of the negativity over at Twitter. Well, I was wrong. When my post finally got traction, I got mostly hurtful comments from people who were mostly just hurling expletives and ad hominems, even from individuals who claim to be “advocates.”

I mean, if you are advocating for something, might as well be kind and logical so that when you stand up for your advocacy, you are backed by facts. Some people were even questioning my own advocacy. I realized later on that it wasn’t such a good idea to expose myself too much, and that was probably the reason why many rage baiters don’t use their real accounts.

That was also the time I realized my experiment somehow backfired because I thought I was ready for it. Apparently, I was not, and I didn’t want to do it again. I opted just archive my post for fear that it might go out of hand.

I realized that in this day and age, people could still be bullies. I understand that we should think before we post, but we should also keep in mind that many people who are angry are very spontaneous on social media. We can react and correct them in a very kind and reasonable way, without having to intimidate them (or each other).

I also realized that, no matter how long I’ve been in the content creation field, I still don’t like negativities. I understand that it’s the reality of social media content creation and blogging, but I still get affected, so I should steer away from those types of content strategies just to get engagement.

In hindsight, I also realized later on that I might be too old to make a big deal out of content creation. If people like my content, then I’d be grateful. If people don’t like my content, then that’s also fine. It’s not the end of the world, and it wouldn’t make me less of a blogger. In the end, the whole idea of content creation is to gather individuals who are of similar interests and mindsets. And let's try to be kind at all times!

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