Rage Bait and Content Farms – The Bane of Social Media

Within the meantime, I wished to challenge a PSA of types, as a result of social media is a factor I each love and hate, most likely with equal measure, on the similar time. And there’s one thing that has me hating it these days, and that’s content material farmers (content material thieves) and rage bait.

Are you accustomed to the time period “rage bait”? Rage bait is when somebody posts one thing outrageous for the only real goal of getting interactions from folks — likes, feedback, shares. Why do they do that? As a result of they’re getting paid for it. Platforms like Fb pay giant pages for interactions, so there are pages which are crammed with nothing however silly rage bait posts, they usually exist for no cause however to get a ton of engagement in order that they’ll receives a commission a lot of cash (most likely 1000’s of {dollars}) every month from Fb for the exercise on their pages. I don’t know if Instagram pays for engagement, however I do know for a undeniable fact that Fb and X (Twitter) do.

Not solely that, however there are tons of pages that exist on nothing however stolen, uncredited content material. This morning after I awoke, I grabbed my cellphone, opened up my Fb app, and the very first put up I noticed on my Fb feed was this put up.

I’m positive that appears acquainted all of you, proper? Sure, this web page not solely stole all 17 of my footage of my home, however additionally they copied my caption phrase for phrase and posted it on their web page with out crediting or tagging me. That is one web page of most likely 1000’s that exist on Fb for the only real goal of posting stolen content material, with out credit score or tagging, to drive up engagement (likes, feedback, and shares) in order that they’ll get a month-to-month test from Fb.

I can’t even specific to you the way a lot I hate these pages. And no, watermarking photographs received’t assist. I’ve been running a blog for 17 years now, and for 16 of these years, I watermarked each single image. However this present day of AI, watermarks will be eliminated in a second. These pages will take seconds to take away watermarks and repost stolen content material for the only real goal of being profitable. And since they solely put up stolen content material, they’ve limitless content material at their fingertips that they’ll steal, put up, and generate income off of.

However the worst is the craze bait. I see put up after put up after put up that’s nothing however rage bait. They put up these silly footage or movies (once more, most likely stolen) KNOWING that they’re going to drive folks batty sufficient that individuals received’t be capable to simply scroll by with out commenting on the stupidity of the put up. That’s their complete aim. They need folks to really feel like they NEED to touch upon the idiocy being displayed on the put up. That drives up engagement, which drives up the amount of cash they make.

Every time I see certainly one of these rage bait posts with 1000’s of feedback on them, all from folks saying the identical factor like, “That is so silly!”, I simply roll my eyes and assume, “You’re doing precisely what they wished you to do.” They know what they’re doing. They’re not as silly as that one explicit put up might make them seem. Their solely aim is engagement as a result of they need the cash your engagement with their put up generates.

The second put up I noticed this morning, proper after that put up with my stolen content material, was a rage bait image and caption that I’ve seen posted on no fewer than 10 totally different Fb pages thus far. I ought to have taken a display screen shot of it in order that I may present you. I’m positive I’ll see it once more at the moment, so after I do, I’ll add an image. However it’s an image of a assist put up for a raised deck set on a concrete pier, however the assist put up is sitting solely midway on the concrete pier, with half of it floating off the sting of the concrete pier. And the caption reads one thing like, “I did this work for the home-owner, and she or he’s refusing to pay me!” Naturally, folks see that image, learn that caption, assume it’s essentially the most ridiculous factor for an individual to count on to be paid for such shoddy work, and might’t resist the urge to react and remark and let the particular person know the way silly he’s for anticipating cost for that sort of work.

I’ve seen so many posts like this. One other instance is cooking movies the place a girl would possibly say, “I’m going to share the recipe for my youngsters’ favourite dinner!” whereas she proceeds to dump a bag of Cheetos right into a casserole dish, cowl it with chunks of Spam, a jar of “cheese product” and another pleasant substances, after which put it within the oven. She takes it out, places that slop on a plate, and exhibits you the completed product. Naturally, folks can’t resist the urge to say issues like, “I can’t imagine you feed that to your youngsters for dinner!” and “How do you not know the way unhealthy that’s in your youngsters?”

They know. THEY KNOW. It’s rage bait. Your entire goal of the put up is to get you to remark, react to the put up, share the put up, and so on. They’re turning your rage and disgust into 1000’s of {dollars} of earnings each month.

That is my private plea to you. Don’t have interaction with the craze baiters and content material farmers on any social media platform. Resist the urge. They know precisely what they’re doing, and it’s all for cash. They know that shoddy work isn’t acceptable. They’re not likely feeding their youngsters Cheeto and Spam casserole for dinner. All they’re doing is deliberately stirring you up so that you simply’ll have interaction with their posts in order that they’ll generate income. They usually’re turning social media platforms like Fb and X and the others that pay for engagement into absolute cesspools of stupidity. Don’t assist them line their pockets. Interact with folks and pages you understand and belief. Depart the content material farmers and rage baiters to rot on the vine.