Let's Talk; Rage Bait and Shitposting

Rage bait and shit posting refers to online content that intentionally angers or confuses people for the sake of controversy or ridicule. Creators like JoJo Siwa and Dylan Mulvaney use these tactics to gain attention and increase their popularity. However, this behavior is detrimental to society as it promotes online bullying and negatively impacts smaller creators. While it may be difficult to stop these tactics, the best solution is to ignore them and not engage with their content. Influencers should not be idolized, and people should realize that they have the power to choose how they let others impact them. Emotions are valid, but commenting or giving attention to hateful or absurd content only validates and encourages it. It's important to focus on oneself and not let the actions of influencers affect one's own life. Overall, the culture of influencers and the obsession with their lifestyles is becoming tiresome, and people are starting to realize the need for more authentic and m Hello, and welcome to Let's Talk, a DORM podcast channel. Today we have our special guest, Allison Schaefer. How are you doing today? I'm doing good. How about you? I'm doing fantastic. Thank you so much for asking. Today's topic is on rage bait and shit posting. What is rage bait and shit posting? Rage bait and shit posting is what you see online with people who make purposefully angering content or just completely absurd content that just doesn't make any sense, but it leads to either a lot of controversy or a lot of people making fun of the creator who posted the original content. Okay. I understand. So has anyone been using these tactics recently? Yes. There have been two creators that I want to touch on today, and that is JoJo Siwa and Dylan Mulvaney with their new songs and JoJo's ridiculous dance moves and Dylan's insane song lyrics. Okay. And what makes you think that this is so detrimental to our society? I think this is so detrimental just because of the fact of they're farming people's emotions. And Dylan and JoJo are not the only creators who have done this. I mean, even the ads that are on your phone that are shown with someone who is like catastrophically dumb playing the game, that is a form of rage bait. They're using something that's so absurd that it makes you want to download the game. And it's the same principle with these creators as they just think that creating a online community of bullying is okay. And the thing is, is that that not only shows onto them, but it also shows onto smaller creators who are just trying to get through and find their communities online. Now, that being said, online bullying isn't okay. Just because something is so completely absurd, that doesn't mean it should be justified. And I'm not saying that I like either of the creators I'm talking about here, but let's be real here. No one deserves, whether they can take it or not, no one deserves to be harassed online because of something they thought would be fantastic. And by using these tactics, all these creators are doing is making more revenue for themselves and making the internet so much worse for other people. Yeah. So they're using the hatred that other people have and using it to get more money and more views just to increase their popularity among others? Yes. And you see them, you see creators doing this a lot when their viewership is going down or when they just haven't been in the headlines for a while. And to me, it's just, there's got to be a better way to get your name back out there and maybe start with making more authentic content to yourself, or maybe try and find a new way to express yourself that is more attractive to a new audience. Because you can't always apply to, you can't always attract 10 million people at once. And Mulvaney, Dylan Mulvaney, she has 10 million followers. She's not always going to appeal to all 10 million. That's insane. That's an insane thing to ask, but it's even worse to try and attract all of those followers by just farming on their emotions. Of course. And do you think that there's any way that we can stop these people from promoting creators who do this? Quite honestly, I don't think we will ever get creators to stop using rage bait and shitposting. It's been around for a very long time. It's incredibly ridiculous, but it's not something that's just going to go away. But that being said, we, let me rephrase, normal people are the ones who put value into celebrities. They don't have to be celebrities. Yes, being born rich is nice. Yes, having access to any voice coach or dance coach or holistic coach or whatever you want to do. Yes, that's nice, but that doesn't inherently make you famous. People like other people who are authentic, and just being born rich doesn't make you authentic. You have to work for it, and so I think people should just realize these are people you will never meet. They are just someone you idolize, but you don't have to idolize them. You don't have to leave a hateful comment on their video just because how stupid it looked or how angry it made you feel. All you have to do is just scroll away, because the second you interact with their video at all, you're increasing their revenue. You're increasing their fame. You're increasing that video showing up on other people's feeds, and that's just not okay. Of course. And so really, yes, there's talks about banning TikTok or other social medias, but you can't do that. No. Let's be honest here. There's too much backlash. There would probably be people suing, let's be real here, and we just can't have that, so I think the best solution would simply be ignore them. They do not have an impact on your life, and I think that's something people have to realize is that they aren't living vicariously through this celebrity or popular influencer. They either have to get there themselves if that's what they want with their life, or they just have to move on and stop letting people impact them so heavily, especially people they don't know or don't care about. Yes, emotions are okay. If something makes you upset, you have that right, but if it's nothing that will affect you in the long term, why comment on it? Why give that person more aid in what they're doing? Because you're just validating their hateful or absurd comments, and here's the thing. Influencers can handle the hate comments they get. They know what hate comments look like, but by encouraging those hate comments, it reflects onto smaller creators, maybe ones with 5,000 followers or less, let's say, just for example. That's not a small amount, but in the social media world, let's just say that, and they're getting hated on. Even if what they posted was satire, they should not post their content at the expense of putting up with the shit that these massive content creators put up with, because they are prepared for that hate. They have PR teams backing them, and I don't mean little, like, oh, it's just their husband in some office in their house. I mean they have full-on PR teams that they have hired to deal with all of it. They see it, yes, but they don't deal with any of it, and even Jojo Siwa, she said in an interview with another TikToker that she messed up the dance move on purpose, because she knew people would go crazy over it, and has coincidentally created this whole community of online bullying, and it's just, it's really not okay, and we just have to stop paying attention to them. I get that. That makes a lot of sense. And I want other people to realize that, like, they are not who they follow. They are their own person. They don't have to pay attention to who they follow. They just need to relax and realize they are not impacted by this person, and that's the thing that matters. Yeah. Because, like, a lot of these influencers, like, you look at their videos, and you're like, oh my gosh, I wish I had, like, this lifestyle. I wish I could live like they do, act like they do. Oh, absolutely. And there's so many different things that come along with that, and it's crazy that we let it bother us so much, to the point that we, like, get to talking negative about someone we don't know, just because one dance move or a few lyrics in a song pissed us off that we had to bully them online. I'm just over it, and I think a lot of other people are, too. I think people are almost completely over-influencer culture, because the truth is, that's the one percent. Yes, it's a career, yes, it's something, but it's so hard to reach that. And that being said, it shouldn't be rage bait or shitposting that leads you to that fame. It should be something authentic, something that everybody enjoys, or something that people find new and interesting. That's what the internet is about. It's about finding yourself and finding new things to explore, not just find a place that makes you angry. Or go back to cyberbullying, like, we fought so hard to stop it, and now it's just coming back because of influencers and people like them? Exactly, and it's just so frustrating to me, and I know it's not just me, but it's hard for smaller creators to get their voices out there, to trump those bigger creators, which is, again, you just got to stop paying attention to them. So anyway, that is my bit on rage bait and shitposting, do you have anything else? Not that I can think of. All right, that sounds amazing, thank you so much for today, it's been awesome. Thank you for having me, I loved it. Of course. All right, so we're going to wrap up today, just ignore it, people, influencers aren't your life. Thank you. And for our weekly listeners, make sure you tune in next week to understand the craziness that was the Abby Lee Miller Dance Company. I'll see y'all then.