Outrage is like a poison. It’s good to be passionate, thoughtful, outspoken even. But if there’s a trend in the last handful of years of social media it’s that everyone is mad about everything. It’s sometimes warranted and always exhausting.
@manton 100%. I think some folks get a dopamine hit from being outraged online. They post a hot take, get likes from random people. It makes them feel morally secure, superior, etc. It almost seems like an addiction.
@manton My first question when I see online outrage surfacing about, well, anything is to ask who profits from it. Follow the money!
I couldn't agree more! And everybody knows everything while the others know nothing! And don't you even dare say something slightly off... Everybody will judge you based on a single word!
And they even find it strange to see that the world is catching fire with so many wars...
@manton I feel like I can only hold so much rage. If you want me to be enraged about rage, I’m going to have to let one of my other rages go. 😀
@manton About everything, yes, but about specific things, maybe that's the one way anyone listens. After all, we're only too well aware of this quote:
Here’s to the crazy ones, the misfits, the rebels, the troublemakers, the round pegs in the square holes… the ones who see things differently — they’re not fond of rules… You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them, but the only thing you can’t do is ignore them because they change things… they push the human race forward, and while some may see them as the crazy ones, we see genius, because the ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.
One person's outrage is the other person's protest.
@manton @chuqvr I’ve noticed this spilling into the real world too. At beer league sports, people are way more pissed off, playing more dangerously, and getting into more fights. Seeing more reckless driving and road rage incidents.
People just seem super stressed out and broken from the last 5-10 years.
@tewha 🙂 I actually like that… If we could only have exactly three (?) things to be mad about at any time, it would help prioritize what matters.
@flargh Its a good question. And many platforms indirectly monetize outrage through increased engagement.
@pratik Think Different is so thoughtful and poetic, though. The people in that video played the long game.
@HitokiriEric I’ve realized a reason I’ve spent so little time on social in the last year is that I just ran out of energy to deal with the churn of platforms and the loud preachy types that insist their life priorities must also be mine
@manton Worse yet, in my opinion, is that most everyone is offended by something most of the time. We are responsible for our feelings, no one else.
@manton the long game, in hindsight, yes. In their time, they (well, some of them) were vilified, harassed, and jailed by the people they were “outraging” against.
@manton Rage about rage sounds smart to put on the list, even at the expense of something else.
Maybe I'll drop my rage against people who use axe body spray in elevators.
@ddanielson That applies to a lot of the world. I wish I had the courage to protest (in person) the atrocities of the world.
@ddanielson Right, it’s actually an interesting metric: is the thing we’re outraged about worth marching in the street for? If everything is an outrage, it’s hard to tell what matters or is just mildly annoying.
@manton @ddanielson Depends how we’re defining outrage, right? One may be writing from a point of annoyance but you may think they are “outraging”.
@odd @manton Chiming in to agree with @ddanielson above. We find ourselves alive in a very interesting time. It is absolutely exhausting though. But that said, I look at the history of humanity and see constant struggle. And looking around today, we find ourselves facing such a myriad of crises. If ever there was a time for outrage it is now.
That said, I think much of the outrage I see is pointed at the trivial. As a tech enthusiast I think most tech-related debate/outrage is pretty silly in the larger context.
@Denny Well said! I have no enthusiasm for the Vision Pro, but am I going to be outraged by it? I hardly even have the capacity for anger anymore. It only hurts myself. There are causes for which I am concerned about though, like the environment, fascism, and oppression, and if anything, those are the main concerns of mine.
@Denny Yeah, maybe I should have defined outrage — there’s a huge range between war, buggy tech gadgets, and the restaurant that got that one order wrong — but it’s interesting to see people’s interpretation. I actually wasn’t thinking about any one thing.
