FROM CLICKBAIT TO RAGE BAIT

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Following in the footsteps of the Cambridge University Dictionary's word of the year, 'parasocial' (see ARE YOU PARASOCIAL?), Oxford University Press, the publisher of the Oxford English Dictionary, has just announced its word of the year.

The word is 'rage bait', which according to Oxford University Press, is "online content deliberately designed to elicit anger our outrage by being frustrating, provocative, or offensive, typically posted in order to increase traffic to or engagement with a particular web page or social media content".

'Rage bait' beat two other contenders for the crown, 'aura farming' and 'biohack'. Aura farming involves behaving or presenting an image of oneself in "a way intended subtly to convey an air of confidence, coolness or mystique." And biohack is "an attempt to improve or optimize one's physical or mental performance, health or longevity, or wellbeing by altering one's diet, exercise routine, or lifestyle", or by using other means such as drugs, supplements, or technological devices."

Previous winners of Oxford University Press' word of the year include 'podcast' (in 2005), 'emoji' (2015), 'goblin mode' to describe people resisting returning to normal life after covid (2022), 'rizz' to mean attractiveness, charm or style (2023) and 'brain rot' to describe the mental exhaustion of constant online scrolling (2024).

The President of Oxford Languages, Casper Grathwohl, observed: "Where last year's choice, brain rot, captured the mental drain of endless scrolling, rage bait shines a light on the content purposefully engineered to spark outrage and drive clicks. And together, they form a powerful cycle where outrage sparks engagement, algorithms amplify it, and constant exposure leaves us mentally exhausted. These words don't just define trends; they reveal how digital platforms are reshaping our thinking and behaviour."

Have you ever engaged in rage bait and/or suffered from brain rot?

I've never engaged in rage bait though I have been the recipient of rage bait from a few MAGA trolls on this site. One well known troll, though banned from the site, announced his farewell again by changing his profile on the Community side to read: "My work is done spunkycumfart and his homoerotic minions are upset. Mission accomplished". I don't get it, I don't fart! I soon blocked him after reading his very anti-liberal and offensive diatribes.

In my offline past, I have often been deliberately provocative, though never abusive, to get a reaction from students or to at least keep them awake in class. Rage bait has its offline equivalents. Radio shock jocks, plus their newspaper and television equivalents, peddled rage bait. Contrarians, polemicists and demagogues often use rage bait as a tactic to get attention.

I've not experienced brain rot. It helps that I don't own a smartphone; there's very little to scroll on a dumbphone!

PS. Not to be outdone by the Cambridge University Dictionary and the Oxford English Dictionary, the Collins English Dictionary recently announced that its word of the year is vibe coding which is the practice of making an app or a website by getting artificial intelligence (AI) to do it rather than by manually programming code.

PPS. It's a bit strange that often dictionaries' words of the year ares two words Also the Oxford English Dictionary should hold its head in shame by spelling optimise with a 'z' and not an 's'; it's the official guardian of the English language!

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